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title: "Member Access | Microsoft Docs"
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# Member Access
Class member access can be controlled by overloading the member access operator (**->**). This operator is considered a unary operator in this usage, and the overloaded operator function must be a class member function. Therefore, the declaration for such a function is:  
  
## Syntax  
  
```  
  
class-type *operator->()  
```  
  
## Remarks  
 where *class-type* is the name of the class to which this operator belongs. The member access operator function must be a nonstatic member function.  
  
 This operator is used (often in conjunction with the pointer-dereference operator) to implement "smart pointers" that validate pointers prior to dereference or count usage.  
  
 The **.** member access operator cannot be overloaded.  
  
## See Also  
 [Operator Overloading](../cpp/operator-overloading.md)