creating c++ classes that use operators

Question

so basically I'm just sand boxing around with c++ because I'm trying to learn some but when I created a class I quickly found out that using classType className=value; will create the class using an overloaded constructor

how do I make it so my class can use other operators like *, == or ||

like i know in python you create private methods like __plus__ is it something similiar in c++?

google "c++ operator overloading" – Derek Oct 18 '13 at 01:18 — Derek, Oct 18 '13 at 01:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

You can overload a lot of operators in C++. In your case you just have to declare functions with the name operator*, operator== and operator|| respectively. Some operators might need to be overloaded as member functions of the class, other as free functions.

Here's some function signature examples:

X operator*(const X&, const X&);
bool operator==(const X&, const X&);
bool operator||(const X&, const X&);

You can easily find a complete list of overloadable operators on Wikipedia.

Before going into this topic, I suggest you to pick a good book and learn a little bit more of C++. Some operators might be dangerous to overload without the proper precautions and some might not behave the way you expect once overloaded.

The poster should know that overloaded `operator||` does not act like the normal `||`. It does not short-circuit. Both arguments are calculated. — Eric Jablow, Oct 18 '13 at 01:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

0

Look up overloading operators.

Here are some links that you can use.

http://courses.cms.caltech.edu/cs11/material/cpp/donnie/cpp-ops.html
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/classes2/
Operator overloading

The first two are about how to do it, the third is on why/when.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

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answered Oct 18 '13 at 01:17

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creating c++ classes that use operators

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