Strange way to access member function

Strange way to access member function

[yogesh]

Hi,
     This is a piece of code I found while going through a web site..
Surprisingly it compiles and gives the expected output(prints the  
line), even though the pointer is initialized to NULL.

I am using gcc 3.3 on Mac OS X.

Can any one tell me what's happening?
What's the point of having static member functions when you can  
access functions like this?

#include <iostream.h>
class Simple {
     public :
              void memfunction()
              {
                 cout << "Hello I am in memFunction" ;
              }

};

Simple *objSimple = NULL;

void wrapper()
{

/* how we are able to access the member function , when we had not
created an object ?  then wht's the use of Static meber functions ?
  */
    objSimple->memfunction();

}

int main()
{
     wrapper();
         exit(0);

}


Thanks,
Yogesh

Re: Strange way to access member function

[Lionel B]

"yogesh" <yogesh.kini@gmail.com> wrote in message news:4FA1BE5B-F622-4485-9BBE-22CE17783117@gmail.com...
> 
> Hi,
>      This is a piece of code I found while going through a web site..
> Surprisingly it compiles and gives the expected output(prints the  
> line), even though the pointer is initialized to NULL.
> 
> I am using gcc 3.3 on Mac OS X.
> 
> Can any one tell me what's happening?

Undefined behaviour. It works for you. On another system it might simply defrost the fridge instead ;-)

("weirdly", it works for me too)

> What's the point of having static member functions when you can  
> access functions like this?
> 
> #include <iostream.h>

#include <iostream>

> class Simple {
>      public :
>               void memfunction()
>               {
>                  cout << "Hello I am in memFunction" ;

std::cout << "Hello I am in memFunction" ;

>               }
> 
> };
> 
> Simple *objSimple = NULL;
> 
> void wrapper()
> {
> 
> /* how we are able to access the member function , when we had not
> created an object ?  then wht's the use of Static meber functions ?
>   */
>     objSimple->memfunction();
> 
> }

You don't need wrapper.

> int main()
> {
>      wrapper();
>          exit(0);
> 
> }

int main()
{
    Simple *objSimple = 0;
    objSimple->memfunction();
    return 0;
}

-- 
Lionel B