9 Declarations [dcl.dcl]

9.3 Declarators [dcl.decl]

9.3.3 Meaning of declarators [dcl.meaning]

9.3.3.3 Pointers to members [dcl.mptr]

In a declaration T D where D has the form and the nested-name-specifier denotes a class, and the type of the identifier in the declaration T D1 is “derived-declarator-type-list T”, then the type of the identifier of D is “derived-declarator-type-list cv-qualifier-seq pointer to member of class nested-name-specifier of type T.
The optional attribute-specifier-seq appertains to the pointer-to-member.
[Example
:
struct X {
  void f(int);
  int a;
};
struct Y;

int X::* pmi = &X::a;
void (X::* pmf)(int) = &X::f;
double X::* pmd;
char Y::* pmc;
declares pmi, pmf, pmd and pmc to be a pointer to a member of X of type int, a pointer to a member of X of type void(int), a pointer to a member of X of type double and a pointer to a member of Y of type char respectively.
The declaration of pmd is well-formed even though X has no members of type double.
Similarly, the declaration of pmc is well-formed even though Y is an incomplete type.
pmi and pmf can be used like this:
X obj;
// ...
obj.*pmi = 7;       // assign 7 to an integer member of obj
(obj.*pmf)(7);      // call a function member of obj with the argument 7
— end example
]
A pointer to member shall not point to a static member of a class ([class.static]), a member with reference type, or “cv void.
[Note
:
The type “pointer to member” is distinct from the type “pointer”, that is, a pointer to member is declared only by the pointer-to-member declarator syntax, and never by the pointer declarator syntax.
There is no “reference-to-member” type in C++.
— end note
]