指向类的指针不是真正的指针;类是一个逻辑构造，在内存中没有物理存在，然而，当你构造一个指向类成员的指针时，它会给出一个指向该成员所在类的对象的偏移量;这给出了一个重要的结论:由于静态成员不与任何对象相关联，因此指向成员的指针不能指向静态成员(数据或函数) 考虑以下几点:

class x {
public:
    int val;
    x(int i) { val = i;}

    int get_val() { return val; }
    int d_val(int i) {return i+i; }
};

int main() {
    int (x::* data) = &x::val;               //pointer to data member
    int (x::* func)(int) = &x::d_val;        //pointer to function member

    x ob1(1), ob2(2);

    cout <<ob1.*data;
    cout <<ob2.*data;

    cout <<(ob1.*func)(ob1.*data);
    cout <<(ob2.*func)(ob2.*data);


    return 0;
}

来源:完整参考c++ - Herbert Schildt第四版

这是我能想到的最简单的例子，它传达了这个特性很少相关的情况:

#include <iostream>

class bowl {
public:
    int apples;
    int oranges;
};

int count_fruit(bowl * begin, bowl * end, int bowl::*fruit)
{
    int count = 0;
    for (bowl * iterator = begin; iterator != end; ++ iterator)
        count += iterator->*fruit;
    return count;
}

int main()
{
    bowl bowls[2] = {
        { 1, 2 },
        { 3, 5 }
    };
    std::cout << "I have " << count_fruit(bowls, bowls + 2, & bowl::apples) << " apples\n";
    std::cout << "I have " << count_fruit(bowls, bowls + 2, & bowl::oranges) << " oranges\n";
    return 0;
}

这里需要注意的是传递给count_fruit的指针。这样就不必单独编写count_apples和count_oranges函数。

另一个应用是侵入式列表。元素类型可以告诉列表它的next/prev指针是什么。所以列表不使用硬编码的名称，但仍然可以使用现有的指针:

// say this is some existing structure. And we want to use
// a list. We can tell it that the next pointer
// is apple::next.
struct apple {
    int data;
    apple * next;
};

// simple example of a minimal intrusive list. Could specify the
// member pointer as template argument too, if we wanted:
// template<typename E, E *E::*next_ptr>
template<typename E>
struct List {
    List(E *E::*next_ptr):head(0), next_ptr(next_ptr) { }

    void add(E &e) {
        // access its next pointer by the member pointer
        e.*next_ptr = head;
        head = &e;
    }

    E * head;
    E *E::*next_ptr;
};

int main() {
    List<apple> lst(&apple::next);

    apple a;
    lst.add(a);
}

IBM有更多关于如何使用它的文档。简单地说，您使用指针作为类的偏移量。你不能在它们所指向的类之外使用这些指针，所以:

  int Car::*pSpeed = &Car::speed;
  Car mycar;
  mycar.*pSpeed = 65;

It seems a little obscure, but one possible application is if you're trying to write code for deserializing generic data into many different object types, and your code needs to handle object types that it knows absolutely nothing about (for example, your code is in a library, and the objects into which you deserialize were created by a user of your library). The member pointers give you a generic, semi-legible way of referring to the individual data member offsets, without having to resort to typeless void * tricks the way you might for C structs.

使用指向成员的指针，我们可以编写这样的泛型代码

template<typename T, typename U>
struct alpha{
   T U::*p_some_member;
};

struct beta{
   int foo;
};

int main()
{

   beta b{};

   alpha<int, beta> a{&beta::foo};

   b.*(a.p_some_member) = 4;

   return 0;
}

我喜欢*和&运算符:

struct X 
{ 
    int a {0}; 
    int *ptr {NULL};

    int &fa() { return a; }
    int *&fptr() { return ptr; }
};

int main(void) 
{
    X x;
    int X::*p1 = &X::a;     // pointer-to-member 'int X::a'. Type of p1 = 'int X::*'
    x.*p1 = 10;

    int *X::*p2 = &X::ptr;  // pointer-to-member-pointer 'int *X::ptr'. Type of p2 = 'int *X::*' 
    x.*p2 = nullptr;
    X *xx;
    xx->*p2 = nullptr;

    int& (X::*p3)() = X::fa; // pointer-to-member-function 'X::fa'. Type of p3 = 'int &(X::*)()'
    (x.*p3)() = 20; 
    (xx->*p3)() = 30;

    int *&(X::*p4)() = X::fptr;  // pointer-to-member-function 'X::fptr'. Type of p4 = 'int *&(X::*)()'
    (x.*p4)() = nullptr; 
    (xx->*p4)() = nullptr;
}

事实上，只要成员是公共的或静态的，所有都是真的