Using "->" in c#?

Question

I have remembered that I have seen "->" used in C#. Apparently I cannot search it through Google (and I do not know what is the name). Therefore I would be very happy if you could explain it to me. Thanks.

Answer 1

-> Accesses a member of a struct through a pointer.

See -> Operator

and

Pointer Types

using System;
struct Point
{
   public int x, y; 
}

class Test 
{
   public unsafe static void Main() 
   {
      Point pt = new Point();
      Point* pp = &pt;
      pp->x = 123;
      pp->y = 456;
      Console.WriteLine ( "{0} {1}", pt.x, pt.y );
   }
}

Outputs

123 456

Answer 2

The -> operator is used for dereferencing pointers, and is used only in unsafe C# code.

Pointers are more or less like object references, except that they point to a memory address. It's a little closer to the internal workings of the system, but it puts garbage collection and type safety out of play. References are more abstract and more restrictive, but allow the runtime to guarantee type safety and do memory management.

See also this MSDN article about unsafe code: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t2yzs44b.aspx