Preferred (by /me, YMMV): 1 or 4, depending on circumstance.

Tolerable (same qualifier), but barely: 3

But, 2 provokes an instant negative reaction. I'm sure wiser heads see ways that this is preferred to 1, but IMO, it's an invitation to some future maintainer to misread that as dereferencing and chase wild geese. In short, it looks to me like an extra keystroke whose chief impact is obscuring the code.