Overloading operators outside of the class - c++

Question

So, i have a simple class:
class complex{
private:
double a,b;
public:
void setA(double a){ this->a=a; }
void setB(double b){ this->b=b; }
double getA(){ return a; }
double getB(){ return b; }
friend complex operator+(const complex&, const complex&);
};
And i have the actual overloaded operator here:
complex operator+(const complex& x, const complex& y){
complex c;
c.a=x.a+y.a;
c.b=x.b+y.b;
return c;
}
I must have the operator overloaded outside of the function. In order to have access to private variables (those also HAVE to be private) I befriended the class with the function. I don't know if that's correct way to do such things, but at least it works.
I want to be able to add an integer to both members. In main():
complex a;
a.setA(2);
a.setB(3);
a+5;
Would result in having a.a=7 and a.b=8. Such overload inside the class is quite easy to make (Again, don't know if that's good solution, if not please correct me):
complex operator+(int x){
this->a+=x;
this->b+=x;
}
But I have no idea how to make it outside of the class because i can't use "this" pointer.

Answer 1

The usual approach to this sort of problem is to have member functions that define the reflexive version of arithmetic operators and free functions that define the non-reflexive version, implemented with the reflexive version. No friend declarations needed. For example:
class complex {
public:
complex& operator+=(const complex& rhs) {
x += rhs.x;
y += rhs.y;
return *this;
}
private:
double x, y;
};
complex operator+(const complex& lhs, const complex& rhs) {
complex result = lhs;
result += rhs;
return result;
}
Having a+5 change the value of a is unusual, but if that's really wha you want, make operator+(int) a member. However, users would typically expect that a+5 would leave a unchanged, and that a += 5 would modify a.