Answer 1

"->" is an element access operator. "->" enables you to access elements of a struct or class instance that is pointed to by a pointer. Therefore "->" is very similar to the element access operator ".", which enables you to access elements of a class or struct instance (not via pointer).
An example:

struct A {
int e;
};
int main() {
A aPtr = new A();
a->e = 5;
}