Change 'this' pointer of an object to point different object

Question

class C{
   //methods and properties
}

void C::some_method(C* b){
    delete this;
    this = b;     
}

This gives me follwing error when compiling:

Answer 1

To quote the standard:

In the body of a non-static (9.3) member function, the keyword this is a prvalue expression whose value is the address of the object for which the function is called.

A "prvalue" is a pure rvalue, something like 42 or 3.14159. In the same way you can't do something like 42 = x, you can't assign to this; in both cases (at least conceptually), there is no object whose value can change.

And I'm really curious as to what you expect to happen if I write something like:

int
main()
{
    C c1;
    C c2
    c1.some_method( &c2 );
}

Do you expect the address of c1 to somehow miraculously change, and for c1 and c2 to be aliases to the same object? (And c1.some_method( NULL ) is even more intreguing.)