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Data member binding in C++ refers to the mechanism of creating and resolving pointers to non-static class data members. Unlike standard pointers that store absolute memory addresses, a pointer to a data member stores the relative byte offset of that member within the class layout. This allows a specific member to be referenced abstractly and subsequently bound to a concrete object instance during expression evaluation.

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Type Signature and Initialization

The type of a pointer to a data member is strongly typed to both the class type and the data type of the member. 
class MyClass;

// Syntax: DataType ClassName::* pointerName;
int MyClass::* memberPtr;
Initialization requires the address-of operator (&) applied to the fully qualified member name. 
struct Entity {
    int x;
    float y;
};

// Binding the pointer to the specific data member 'x'
int Entity::* x_ptr = &Entity::x;

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Binding Operators

To access the underlying data, the pointer-to-member must be bound to a specific object instance using one of two specialized operators:
  1. .* (Pointer-to-Member Operator): Used when binding to an object instance (lvalue or rvalue).
  2. ->* (Pointer-to-Member Arrow Operator): Used when binding to a pointer to an object instance.
Entity obj{10, 20.5f};
Entity* objPtr = &obj;

// Binding via object reference
int val1 = obj.*x_ptr; 

// Binding via object pointer
int val2 = objPtr->*x_ptr;

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Technical Characteristics

  • Memory Representation: A pointer to a data member is typically implemented by the compiler as a ptrdiff_t representing the offset from the this pointer. Dereferencing it effectively performs pointer arithmetic and evaluates to a typed lvalue, conceptually represented as *(DataType*)((char*)&obj + offset).
  • Null State Representation: Pointers to data members fully support an empty or unassigned state. They can be initialized or assigned using nullptr (or 0 in older C++ standards). Attempting to bind and dereference a null pointer-to-member results in undefined behavior.
int Entity::* null_ptr = nullptr;
  • Static Data Members: Static members are not bound using this mechanism. Because they exist independently of class instances, pointers to static data members are standard C++ pointers (e.g., int*), not pointers to members.
  • Inheritance and Contravariance: Pointers to data members exhibit contravariance. A pointer to a data member of a base class can be implicitly converted to a pointer to a data member of a derived class. The compiler automatically adjusts the internal offset to account for the derived class’s memory layout. However, C++ explicitly forbids this conversion if the base class is a virtual base class, as the offset cannot be determined statically at compile time.
struct Base { int data; };
struct Derived : Base { int extra; };
struct VirtualDerived : virtual Base { int extra; };

int Base::* basePtr = &Base::data;

// Valid: Implicit conversion from Base::* to Derived::*
int Derived::* derivedPtr = basePtr; 

// Invalid: Compilation error. Cannot convert across virtual inheritance
// int VirtualDerived::* vDerivedPtr = basePtr;
  • Standard Library Integration: Data member binding is natively supported by std::invoke, which abstracts the .* and ->* operators into a uniform callable interface, treating the data member pointer as a callable object that takes the instance as its argument.
#include <functional>

Entity obj{42, 3.14f};
int Entity::* ptr = &Entity::x;

// Uniform binding via std::invoke
int result = std::invoke(ptr, obj);
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