Pointer in class name before scope resolution operator

Question

I am moving from c to c++ and came across scoperesolution page info here and was quite helpful What does "ClassName ClassName::FunctionName" mean in C++?

But I also came across the following code which I am planning to learn and it has a pointer before class name, so my question is in what circumstance would one use the pointer.

const char *TObject::ClassName() const
{
   // Returns name of class to which the object belongs.
   return IsA()->GetName();
}

Answer 1

This is a regular definition of a member function outside of its class. The asterisk has no special meaning in this context.

First, recall how you define a function in C that returns a pointer:

const char *Foo() {
   return something;
}

The declaration that you see has the same structure, except for two elements:

• Full name of the function uses a scope resolution operator, and
• There is a const after the function.

What scope resolution means is that ClassName is a member-function belonging to class TObject , and the const at the end means that the code of the member-function does not alter member variables of its class.