What is ->?

[lewby]

Hi.

This may seem like a stupid question, but what is -> and what does it do? i see it in many pre-written scripts however have never come accross it in a tuorial. im hoping someone could she a light.

[benevolent001]

Are you pointing to comments sort of thing?

[cameraman]

It's used to access member functions and variables of a class:
class foo {
var $a;
function bar() {
echo "bar";
} // end bar()
} // end class

$object = new foo();
$object2 = new foo();

$object -> bar(); // executes the function, outputs 'bar'
$object -> a = "hi ";
$object2 -> a = "there";

echo $object->a . $object2->a; // Outputs 'hi there'

[lewby]

Ah gotcha. Thanks very much.

[eelixduppy]

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it's called the arrow membership operator. :)

[phranque]

the arrow operator is actually an infix dereference operator.
generally the left side is a reference or something could be made into a reference and the right side is some method of addressing a resource in that reference.