title: Using arrow -> and dot . operators together in C
body: <p>I was under the impression that it was possible to access data from a sub-node of a linked list or similar structure by using the arrow and dot operators together like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>typedef struct a{
  int num;
  struct a *left;
  struct a *right;
  }tree;
  
  tree *sample;
  ...
  if(sample-&gt;left.num &gt; sample-&gt;right.num)
      //do something
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but when I try to implement this, using -> and . to access data from a sub node I get the error "request for member num in something not a structure or union".</p>