syntax "this->"

Projects Programming
1

hi everyone,

can anyone help out here, I'm trying to understand the library from Stepper (step_motor), and in the members part (.cpp) of the library shows up that syntax "this->" . Thanks arduino-libraries/Stepper.cpp at master · lstoll/arduino-libraries · GitHub

2

"this->" is pointer to class object itself it means that it points to the object (address of this object) for which is called.

3

"this" is well documented in C++ (it's not part of C) this points to the data for the instance of the class.

Mark

4

On a side note:
Beware, that repo you linked is a copy of the built-in Arduino libraries and is very old, the contents of those libraries have been updated, modified, and improved since its release. Your IDE will come with the latest incarnations of them.

The up-to-date repo's are here: https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/tree/master/libraries
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/tree/master/hardware/arduino/avr/libraries (The Zero and Due have their own versions).

5

vaporlaute:
hi everyone,

can anyone help out here, I'm trying to understand the library from Stepper (step_motor), and in the members part (.cpp) of the library shows up that syntax
"this->"

This is one of those concepts that is a bit more advanced and may not make a lots of sense until you get some more knowledge of how the compiler deals with objects and assignment of variable scope.
But, to answer your question, this should help.

Every object in C++ has access to its own address through an important pointer called this pointer. The this pointer is an implicit parameter to all member functions. Therefore, inside a member function, this may be used to refer to the invoking object.

I strongly recommend not jumping into the middle of C++ without a firm understanding of more basic concepts of encapsulation and scope.

Ray