What Does -> mean in PHP

Question

I am trying to create a login form and I keep running into this code...

$result = $connection->query($sql);

if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$_SESSION['username'] = $row["username"];
echo "wrong password";
}
echo $_SESSION['username'];
} else {
header("Location: home.html");
}

I have no idea what it means so can someone break it down for me

Answer 1

That symbol means you're calling a function inside of an object. For example, in the line "$connection->query($sql)" you're calling the function query from the object $connection.