Operator Overloading

CS-2303 System Programming Concepts

(Slides include materials from The C Programming Language, 2nd edition, by Kernighan and Ritchie, from C: How to Program, 5th and 6th editions, by Deitel and Deitel, and from The C++ Programming Language, 3rd edition, by Bjarne Stroustrup)

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Operator Overloading

Why Operator Overloading?

Readable code Extension of language to include userdefined types
I.e., classes

Make operators sensitive to context Generalization of function overloading

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Simple Example
class complex { double real, imag; public: complex(double r, double i) : real(r), imag(i) {} }

Would like to be able to write:

complex a = complex(1, 3.0); complex b = complex(1.2, 2); complex c = b; I.e., would like to write ordinary arithmetic expressions a = b + c; on this user-defined class. b = b+c*a; c = a*b + complex(1,2);
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With Operator Overloading, We Can

class complex { double real, imag; public: complex(double r, double i) : real(r), imag(i) {} complex operator+(complex a, complex b); complex operator*(complex a, complex b); complex& operator=(complex a, complex b); ... }
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General Format
returnType operator*(parameters);
any type keyword operator symbol

Return type may be whatever the operator returns

Including a reference to the object of the operand

Operator symbol may be any overloadable operator from the list.

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Operator Overloading

C++ Philosophy
All operators have context
Even the simple built-in operators of basic types E.g., '+', '-', '*', '/' for numerical types Compiler generators different code depending upon type of operands

Operator overloading is a generalization of this feature to non-built-in types

E.g., '<<', '>>' for bit-shift operations and also for stream operations
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C++ Philosophy (continued)

Operators retain their precedence and associativity, even when overloaded Operators retain their number of operands Cannot redefine operators on built-in types

Not possible to define new operators

Only (a subset of) the built-in C++ operators can be overloaded
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Operators that Can and Cannot be Overloaded

Operators that can be overloaded
+ ~ /= <<= -new[] ! %= == ->* delete[] * = ^= != , / < &= <= -> % > |= >= [] ^ += << && () & -= >> || new | *= >>= ++ delete

Deitel & Deitel, Figure 22.1

Operators that cannot be overloaded
. .* :: ?:

Deitel & Deitel, Figure 22.2

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Operator Overloading

Outline
Fundamentals of Operator Overloading Restrictions on Operator Overloading Operator Functions as Class Members vs. Global Functions Overloading Stream Insertion and Stream Extraction Operators

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Operator Overloading

Operator Overload Function

Either
a non-static member function definition or a global function definition
Usually a friend of the class

Function name is keyword operator followed by the symbol for the operation being overloaded
E.g. operator+, operator=
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Operator Overload Function (continued)

Operator overload function is a function just like any other Can be called like any other e.g.,
a.operator+(b)

C++ provides the following short-hand

a+b
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Operator Overload Function (continued)

If operator overload function is declared global then
operator+(a, b)

also reduces to the following short-hand

a+b

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Operator Overloading (continued)

To use any operators on a class object, The operator must be overloaded for that class. Three Exceptions: {overloading not required} Assignment operator (=) Memberwise assignment between objects Dangerous for classes with pointer members!! Address operator (&) Returns address of the object in memory. Comma operator (,)
Evaluates expression to its left then the expression to its right. Returns the value of the expression to its right.
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Questions?

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Operator Functions as Class Members

Leftmost operand must be of same class as operator function. Use this keyword to implicitly get left operand argument. Operators (), [], -> or any assignment operator must be overloaded as a class member function. Called when
Left operand of binary operator is of this class. Single operand of unary operator is of this class.
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Operator Functions as Global Members

Need parameters for both operands. Can have object of different class than operator. Can be made a friend to access private or protected data.

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Stream Insertion and Extraction Operators as Global Functions Overload << operator used where
Left operand of type ostream &
Such as cout object in cout << classObject

Overload >> has left operand of istream

Left operand of type istream &

&

Such as cin object in cout >> classObject

Reason:
These operators are associated with class of right operand
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Commutative operators
May need + to be commutative
So both a + b and b + a work as expected.

Suppose we have two different classes

Overloaded operator can only be member function when its class is on left.
HugeIntClass + long int

Can be member function

For the other way, you need a global overloaded function.

long int + HugeIntClass
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Example Deitel & Deitel 23.5

<<

and >> operators

Already overloaded to process each built-in type (pointers and strings). Can also process a user-defined class.
Overload using global, friend functions

Example program
Class PhoneNumber
Holds a telephone number

Prints out formatted number automatically.

(123) 456-7890
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Example 23.5 (continued)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 #include <string> 11 using std::string; 12 13 class PhoneNumber 14 { 15 16 18 19 20 22 23 #endif friend ostream &operator<<( ostream &, const PhoneNumber & ); friend istream &operator>>( istream &, PhoneNumber & ); string areaCode; // 3-digit area code string exchange; // 3-digit exchange string line; // 4-digit line #include <iostream> using std::ostream; using std::istream; // Fig. 22.3: PhoneNumber.h // PhoneNumber class definition #ifndef PHONENUMBER_H #define PHONENUMBER_H

Note also: returns a reference!

17 private:

21 }; // end class PhoneNumber

Notice function prototypes for overloaded operators >> and << (must be global, friend functions)

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Example 23.5 (continued)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 // overloaded stream insertion operator; cannot be 10 // a member function if we would like to invoke it with 11 // cout << somePhoneNumber; 12 ostream &operator<<( ostream &output, const PhoneNumber &number ) 13 { 14 15 16 output << "(" << number.areaCode << ") " << number.exchange << "-" << number.line; return output; // enables cout << a << b << c; #include "PhoneNumber.h" // Fig. 22.4: PhoneNumber.cpp // Overloaded stream insertion and stream extraction operators // for class PhoneNumber. #include <iomanip> using std::setw;

Allows cout << phone; to be interpreted as: operator<<(cout, phone);

17 } // end function operator<<

Display formatted phone number

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Example 23.5 (continued)

18 19 // overloaded stream extraction operator; cannot be 20 // a member function if we would like to invoke it with 21 // cin >> somePhoneNumber; 22 istream &operator>>( istream &input, PhoneNumber &number ) 23 { 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 input.ignore(); // skip ( input >> setw( 3 ) >> number.areaCode; // input area code input.ignore( 2 ); // skip ) and space input >> setw( 3 ) >> number.exchange; // input exchange input.ignore(); // skip dash (-) input >> setw( 4 ) >> number.line; // input line return input; // enables cin >> a >> b >> c;

ignore skips specified number of characters from input (1 by default)

Input each portion of phone number separately

31 } // end function operator>>

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Example 23.5 (concluded)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 int main() 12 { 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 // cout << phone invokes operator<< by implicitly issuing // the global function call operator<<( cout, phone ) cout << phone << endl; return 0; cout << "The phone number entered was: "; // cin >> phone invokes operator>> by implicitly issuing // the global function call operator>>( cin, phone ) cin >> phone; cout << "Enter phone number in the form (123) 456-7890:" << endl; PhoneNumber phone; // create object phone #include "PhoneNumber.h" // Fig. 22.5: fig22_05.cpp // Demonstrating class PhoneNumber's overloaded stream insertion // and stream extraction operators. #include <iostream> using std::cout; using std::cin; using std::endl;

Invoke overloaded >> and << operators to input and output a PhoneNumber object

27 } // end main

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Questions?

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Unary Operators
Can overload as
Non-static member function with no arguments. As a global function with one argument.
Argument must be class object or reference to class object.

Why non-static?
static functions only access static data

Not what is needed for operator functions

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Example D & D 22.6

Overload '!' to test for empty string When compiler encounters
while (!s) if (!s)

it generates the call to

s.operator!()

Implemented as:
class String { public: bool operator!() const; };
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Overloading Binary Operators

Non-static member function with one argument. or Global function with two arguments:
One argument must be class object or reference to a class object.

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Overloading Binary Operators (continued)

If a non-static member function, it needs one argument.
class String { public: String & operator+=( const String &); };

By shorthand rule
y += z becomes y.operator+=( z )
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Overloading Binary Operators

(continued) If a global function, it needs two arguments
class String { public: String & operator+=( String &, const String & ); };

By short-hand rule
y += z becomes operator+=(y, z)
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Overloading Operators
On the previous slide, y and z are assumed to be String-class objects or references to Stringclass objects. There are two ways to pass arguments to the global function:
With an argument that is an object (this requires a copy of the object) or with an argument that is a reference to an object (this means the side effects of the function called to implement the overloaded operator can side-effect this object that is called-by-reference!)
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Questions?

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Next Time
Array Class
Deitel & Deitel

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