What does the -> operator do in Objective-C

Question

Sorry if this question has been asked before but there were literally no results when i typed it into google. As the title states, I would like to know what the -> operator does. I see it everywhere: [self processTorrent:alert->handle]; but don't know what it does

Answer 1

It's the structure dereference ("member b of object pointed to by a") in C. Objective-C is a strict superset of C.

The the usual way to access a member a is as s.a which, given the pointer, is expressed as (*p).a or can instead be accessed by the shorthand:

p->a using the structure dereference operator.

struct point
{
    int* x;
    int* y;
};

structure point* struct1;

As with any pointer. To change the address it points to:

struct1->x = &varX;

To change the value at the address to which it points:

*(struct1->x) = varX;