Space between arrow operator in C

Question

I was notified the other day that I shouldn't use pointer arrows in a certain way in C. What I did was this:

struct info {
    int x;
    char *data;
}

int main() {
    struct info *information;
    information -> x = 0; /*Notice the spacing here between information and -> x*/
    information -> data = "";
}

What I usually see

struct info *information;
information->x = 0;

I just wanted to ask, is this just a regular coding standard thing?
I just feel -> is a lot cleaner than p->stuff.

Answer 1

It doesn't matter from a syntactic point of view, it's insignificant whitespace.

I would say that (anectdotally) the style without spaces is much more common. I find it nice since it somehow reflects the "tightness" of the structure containment. Of course, I write almost all other binary operators with spaces, i.e.

a->b = 1 + 2;

and never

a -> b = 1+2;

or

a->b = 1+2;

It's just personal preference, in the end. Of course in many professional environments that's lifted to "project/company style guide dictates that this is how it's done, here".

Also, when working directly with structures using the . operator, I use that the same way. Always:

a.b = 1 + 2;

and never:

a . b = 1+2;

I think the former formatting works for me since, as I tried saying above, the two things on the sides of the operator are part of the same thing, "a.b" is a term, not two. With +, it's two operands are independent so there the spacing makes more sense to me.