Is (*i).member less efficient than i->member
c++, dereference, performance
Solution
When you return a reference, that's exactly the same as passing back a pointer, pointer semantics excluded. You pass back a `sizeof(void*)` element, not a `sizeof(yourClass)`.
So when you do that:
Person& Person::someFunction(){
...
return *this;
}
You return a reference, and that reference has the same intrinsic size than a pointer, so there's no runtime difference.
Same goes for your use of `(*i).name`, but in that case you create an l-value, which has then the same semantics as a reference (see also here)
Problem
Having ``` struct Person { string name; }; Person* p = ... ``` Assume that no operators are overloaded. Which is more efficient (if any) ? `(*p).name` vs. `p->name` Somewhere in the back of my head I hear some bells ringing, that the `*` dereference operator may create a temporary copy of an object; is this true? The background of this question are cases like this: ``` Person& Person::someFunction(){ ... return *this; } ``` and I began to wonder, if changing the result to `Person*` and the last line to simply `return this` would make any difference (in performance)?