operator* and operator-> provide access to the object owned by *this.

These member functions are only provided for unique_ptr for the single objects i.e. the primary template.

If get() is a null pointer, the behavior is undefined.

Return value

1) Returns the object owned by *this, equivalent to *get().

2) Returns a pointer to the object owned by *this, i.e. get().

Exceptions

1) May throw if pointer has a throwing operator*.

Notes

The use of std::add_lvalue_reference is to make it possible to instantiate std::unique_ptr<void> since void& isn't allowed in C++ while std::add_lvalue_reference<void> produces void. See LWG673 for details.

Example

#include <iostream>
#include <memory>

struct Foo
{
    void bar() { std::cout << "Foo::bar\n"; }
};

void f(const Foo&) 
{
    std::cout << "f(const Foo&)\n";
}

int main() 
{
    std::unique_ptr<Foo> ptr(new Foo);
    
    ptr->bar();
    f(*ptr);
}

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

See also