Overloading the += operator - c++

I have the following code to overload the + and += operators respectively for the class Date. The operator + was successfully overloaded, and it will take an integer n and increase Date objects by n days. This is done by applying the next_day function n times.
inline Date operator+(Date d, int n)
{
for(char j=1; j<=n; j++){
d=d.next_day(d);
}
return d;
}
inline Date operator+=(Date d, int n)
{
Date p=d+n;
return p;
}
Having overloaded the + operator, I'm using it to define the overloading of += as well. But although no errors occurred in compilation, when I use the overloaded += it doesn't seem to have any effect.
Here's my main.cpp:
#include <iostream>
#include "Date.h"
using namespace std;
int main() {
Date Initialday = Date (12,1,2012);
Initialday+=1;
cout <<"Next day = "<< Initialday <<endl;
return 0;
}
Running the main function still gives me 12/1/2012 instead of 12/2/2012. What am I doing wrong? Note: I've already overloaded << to output Date objects in a readable format, so I don't think that's the issue.

The simple fix is to take your Date object in by reference, modify it, and return it by reference. That's the expected behavior of operator+=.
inline Date& operator+=(Date &d, int n)
{
d = d + n;
return d;
}
However, to implement operator+= in terms of operator+ is backwards. It should be the other way around. operator+= should act on the members of the object, changing them directly. Then operator+ should be implemented in terms of that:
inline Date& operator+=(Date& lhs, int rhs)
{
... // code here to modify lhs directly
return lhs;
}
inline Date operator+(Date lhs, int rhs)
{
return lhs += rhs;
}

The main problem is that your += is creating a new Date object and returning it. That is the wrong semantics, plus you do not assign that return value to anything. A += operator should act on the instance it is applies to and return it by reference:
inline Date& operator+=(Date& d, int n) {
return d = d + n;
}
Usually, this would be implemented as a member function, with + implemented in terms of +=:
class Date
{
public:
Date& operator+=(int n) {
// perform whatever operation is required using
// the state of the instance.
return *this;
}
};
inline Date operator+(Date lhs, int rhs) {
return lhs += rhs; // calls member +=
}
The cleanest way would be to provide a time duration class, and implement all the operators in terms of a Date and a TimeDuration:
struct TimeDuration { .... };
class Date
{
public:
Date& operator+= (const TimeDuration& rhs) { .... }
};
inline Date operator+(Date lhs, const TimeDuration& rhs) { return lhs += rhs; }

Related

Overloading operators: operand order when using C++ literals

I am writing a class and I got to the point where I can do operations that mix my class type objects and C++ literals, but in one direction only.
here is a simplified code that shows the idea:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
class CLS
{
string str;
public:
CLS(const char* param)
{ str = param; }
CLS operator+(const CLS& rhs)
{
str = str + rhs.str;
return *this; }
friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const CLS& rhs);
};
ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const CLS& rhs)
{
out << rhs.str;
return out; }
int main()
{
CLS a("\n Hello ");
CLS b("bye!\n\n");
cout << a + "World!\n\n";
//cout << "\n Good " + b; /* this is not possible because of the operands order */
}
As you see, I can do something like:
a + "W";
but not,
"W" + a;
As indicated in the last line of the code.
I understand the reason.
The first is equivalent to:
a.operator+("W");
which is covered by my class. However, the second is like,
"W".operator(a);
which is not covered and the literal itself is not an object of a class as I understand. And so, the expression as whole cannot be.
I understand I can create a user defined literals, but this is not what I want to do here. (although I am not sure if they gonna work or not).
I could not find any hint browsing questions I supposed to be related on this site, and I could not get something related to my issue on the net.
My question:
Is there a way that can make either order works?
This code:
cout << "\n Good " + b; /* this is not possible because of the operands order */
does not work because you made operator+ member (and not const member). If you rewrite it as standalone function (probably friend) then this problem would go away:
friend
CLS operator+(const CLS& lhs, const CLS& rhs)
{
CLS r;
r.str = lhs.str + rhs.str;
return r;
}
if you create additional ctor that accepts const std::string & it would be even simpler:
friend
CLS operator+(const CLS& lhs, const CLS& rhs)
{
return CLS( lhs.str + rhs.str );
}
note, you should rewrite existing constructor this way:
CLS(const char* param) : str( param )
{}
it is cleaner and more efficient way
You can add a global function:
inline CLS operator+(const char *lhs, const CLS& rhs)
{
return CLS(lhs) + rhs;
}

Why does my operator overloading handle left versus right objects?

I had a question on operator overloading. Below is my the example code. If you can read through it and my question is below.
//class definition
class example
{
private:
int a ; // Defined in FeetInches.cpp
public:
void seta(int f)
{
a = f;
}
example operator + (const example &); // Overloaded +
int geta()
{
return a;
}
};
example example::operator + (const example &right)
{
example temp;
temp.a = a + right.a;
return temp;
}
//main
#include "header" //this is the class definition above
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
example r;
r.seta(1);
example s;
s.seta(1);
example t;
t = r + s;
t = r + 1; //if included it won't compile
t = 1 + r; //if included it won't compile
int x = t.geta();
cout << x;
cin.get();
return 0;
}
I understand that when you attempt to add to objects together using operator overloading they should be the same.
Here is the question:
I recently saw when the object was on one side of the operator it compiled but when it was on the other it didn't. Such as:
t = r + 1; it compiled.
t = 1 + r; it didn't.
(Also I know in my example it doesn't work either way but was just easier to frame question with code.)
How does operator overloading compile when the object is on one side of the operator but not compile when it is on the other.
Thanks
If you rewrite the offending statement verbosely, it looks like:
t.operator=(1.operator+(r));
Which doesn't make a lot of sense and confuses the compiler.
Being confused, it can either convert the number 1 to an instance of example or convert the variable r to an integer. Unfortunately, you don't supply enough information in your class to do either.
If you provide a constructor for your class that takes an integer, things may come out less confusing:
class example
{
public:
example(int new_value) : a(new_value)
{ ; }
};
Now you have provided the compiler with a method convert integers into examples.
Another alternative is to provide a casting or conversion operator:
class example
{
public:
int operator int (const example& e)
{
return e.a;
}
};
There are other alternatives, such as creating an addition method that takes an integer.
Edit 1:
If you are designing a units class beware of constants. You have no idea what unit the constant is in, such as feet or inches. The compiler won't be able to help, since numerical constants don't have units associated with them.
It's really simple, when you overloading operator you can do it in two ways:
First is like you do it. You inserted overloaded operator for your class in it. This way the left argument must be the object of this class. Why? Because when you call this operator you can do it as call of every function in your class. You can't do it other way, because you can't call this function by other type.
Second, you made overloaded operator as friend to your class.
In your class you put this line:
friend example& operator + (const example &left, const example &right);
And after your class definition you put this:
example& operator + (const example &left, const example &right){...}
So if you want to add integer or other types you must just modify your operator to add it like this:
example& operator + (const example &left, const int right){...}
or this:
example& operator + (const int left, const example &right){...}
Choose one or both if you want to add int from left or rigth side of the opearator.
t = r + 1; means t = r.operator+(1); if r defines a matching operator+() method, otherwise it means t = operator+(r, 1); instead. It does not compile because you did not define any + operator that takes an example on the left and an int on the right, eg:
// as a class method:
class example
{
...
public:
...
example operator + (int right) const;
};
example example::operator + (int right) const
{
example temp;
temp.seta(a + right);
return temp;
}
Or:
// as a global operator:
class example
{
...
public:
...
friend example operator + (const example& left, int right);
};
example operator + (const example& left, int right)
{
example temp;
temp.seta(left.a + right);
return temp;
}
If you had defined a contructor that takes an int as input, the compiler could have created a temp example when you pass an int value to the example::operator+(const example&) method, eg:
class example
{
...
public:
example (int f);
...
example operator + (const example& right);
};
example::example::(int f)
: a(f)
{
}
example example::operator + (const example& right)
{
example temp;
temp.a = a + right.a;
return temp;
}
Likewise, t = 1 + r; means t = operator+(1, r); (since 1 is not a class type). It does not compile because you did not define a global + operator that takes an int on the left and an example on the right:
class example
{
...
public:
...
friend example operator + (int left, const example& right);
};
example operator + (int left, const example& right)
{
example temp;
temp.a = left + right.a;
return temp;
}

c++ Operator overloading,

Whats wrong with my code shown below? please somebody throw some light. Thanks for your time !
#include<iostream.h>
using namespace std;
struct mydata{
int mx;
mydata(int x = 0){}
mydata operator+(const mydata& rhs){
mydata temp(rhs);
return temp;
}
operator int() const{ return mx; }
operator double() const{ return mx; }
};
int main(){
mydata d;
mydata r = d + 5; // L1
5 + d; // L2
d + d; // L3
}
First, you haven't stated what the problem is, but presumably you want an operator+ that sums the mx values of two mydata objects:
mydata operator+(const mydata& rhs){
return mydata (mx + rhs.mx);
}
Next, I would suggest making this a non-member function, so that the LHS and RHS get treated in the same way, fixing the problem in L2:
mydata operator+(const mydata& lhs, const mydata& rhs){
return mydata (lhs.mx + rhs.mx);
}
Finally, you will have an ambiguous overload remaining, because the compiler cannot decide whether to use the built-in operator+(int,int) or your own operator+(const mydata&, const mydata&). You can fix this by removing the cast operators int() and double().
See demo here.
The problem (stated the comment) is that compiler doesn't know which + you want to execute:
(double)d + 5
or
(int)d + 5
In order to resolve this ambiguoity, you should point the type conversion, or replace one of these operators by a named function:
operator int() const{ return mx; }
operator double() const{ return mx; }
If you want instead use d + mydata(5) you should write so, because the above variants are more likely to be applied
You could provide a few non-member operator+ to enable operator+ with different data type:
mydata operator+(const mydata& lhs, const mydata& rhs){
return mydata (lhs.mx + rhs.mx);
}
mydata operator+(int mx, const mydata& rhs){
return mydata (rhs.mx+mx);
}
mydata operator+(const mydata& lhs, int mx){
return mydata(lhs.mx+mx);
}
You can't do 5 + d. 5 can not be converted to class object like this. For this you need to get the operator + definition out of the class method. (in my knowledge preferably friend).

Operator overloading+ add two objects

I'm trying to add two object that they are in the same class.
In the private section of the class I have two int variables
class One {
private:
int num1, num2;
public:
One operator+=(const One&); // - a member operator that adds another One object - to the current object and returns a copy of the current object
friend bool operator==(const One&, const One&); // - a friend operator that compares two One class objects for equality
};
One operator+(const One&, const One&);// - a non-friend helper operator that adds One objects without changing their values and returns a copy of the resulting One
I'm not sure I have a problem on the opeartor+ I guess
One operator+(const One &a, const One &b){
One c,d,r;
c = a;
d = b;
r += b;
r += a;
return r;
}
I think the above code is wrong, but I tried to use like b.num1 and I get compile error
error: 'int One::num1' is private
error: within this context
and I can't use b->num1 as well because the above function is not in the member function section.
error: base operand of '->' has non-pointer type 'const One'
This is how it calls in main
Result = LeftObject + RightObject;
If you have already implemented this member function:
One One::operator+=(const One&);
Then you may implement the non-member addition operator thus:
One operator+(const One& lhs, const One& rhs) {
One result = lhs;
result += rhs;
return result;
}
This can be simplified somewhat into the following:
One operator+(One lhs, const One& rhs) {
return lhs += rhs;
}
This pattern (which you can adapt for all operator/operator-assignment pairs) declares the operator-assignment version as a member -- it can access the private members. It declares the operator version as a non-friend non-member -- this allows type promotion on either side of the operator.
Aside: The += method should return a reference to *this, not a copy. So its declaration should be: One& operator+(const One&).
EDIT: A working sample program follows.
#include <iostream>
class One {
private:
int num1, num2;
public:
One(int num1, int num2) : num1(num1), num2(num2) {}
One& operator += (const One&);
friend bool operator==(const One&, const One&);
friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const One&);
};
std::ostream&
operator<<(std::ostream& os, const One& rhs) {
return os << "(" << rhs.num1 << "#" << rhs.num2 << ")";
}
One& One::operator+=(const One& rhs) {
num1 += rhs.num1;
num2 += rhs.num2;
return *this;
}
One operator+(One lhs, const One &rhs)
{
return lhs+=rhs;
}
int main () {
One x(1,2), z(3,4);
std::cout << x << " + " << z << " => " << (x+z) << "\n";
}
I can't see why the operator+ is wrong:
#include <stdio.h>
class One {
public:
One(int n1, int n2): num1(n1),num2(n2) {}
private:
int num1, num2;
public:
One operator+=(const One& o) {
num1 += o.num1;
num2 += o.num2;
return *this;
}
friend bool operator==(const One&, const One&); // - a friend operator that compares two One class objects for equality
void print() {
printf("%d,%d\n", num1, num2);
}
};
One operator+(const One& a, const One& b) {
One r(0,0);
r += b;
r += a;
return r;
}
int main() {
One a(1,2),b(3,4);
One r = a + b;
r.print();
}

How do I go about overloading C++ operators to allow for chaining?

I, like so many programmers before me, am tearing my hair out writing the right-of-passage-matrix-class-in-C++. I have never done very serious operator overloading and this is causing issues. Essentially, by stepping through
This is what I call to cause the problems.
cMatrix Kev = CT::cMatrix::GetUnitMatrix(4, true);
Kev *= 4.0f;
cMatrix Baz = Kev;
Kev = Kev+Baz; //HERE!
What seems to be happening according to the debugger is that Kev and Baz are added but then the value is lost and when it comes to reassigning to Kev, the memory is just its default dodgy values. How do I overload my operators to allow for this statement?
My (stripped down) code is below.
//header
class cMatrix
{
private:
float* _internal;
UInt32 _r;
UInt32 _c;
bool _zeroindexed;
//fast, assumes zero index, no safety checks
float cMatrix::_getelement(UInt32 r, UInt32 c)
{
return _internal[(r*this->_c)+c];
}
void cMatrix::_setelement(UInt32 r, UInt32 c, float Value)
{
_internal[(r*this->_c)+c] = Value;
}
public:
cMatrix(UInt32 r, UInt32 c, bool IsZeroIndexed);
cMatrix( cMatrix& m);
~cMatrix(void);
//operators
cMatrix& operator + (cMatrix m);
cMatrix& operator += (cMatrix m);
cMatrix& operator = (const cMatrix &m);
};
//stripped source file
cMatrix::cMatrix(cMatrix& m)
{
_r = m._r;
_c = m._c;
_zeroindexed = m._zeroindexed;
_internal = new float[_r*_c];
UInt32 size = GetElementCount();
for (UInt32 i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
_internal[i] = m._internal[i];
}
}
cMatrix::~cMatrix(void)
{
delete[] _internal;
}
cMatrix& cMatrix::operator+(cMatrix m)
{
return cMatrix(*this) += m;
}
cMatrix& cMatrix::operator*(float f)
{
return cMatrix(*this) *= f;
}
cMatrix& cMatrix::operator*=(float f)
{
UInt32 size = GetElementCount();
for (UInt32 i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
_internal[i] *= f;
}
return *this;
}
cMatrix& cMatrix::operator+=(cMatrix m)
{
if (_c != m._c || _r != m._r)
{
throw new cCTException("Cannot add two matrix classes of different sizes.");
}
if (!(_zeroindexed && m._zeroindexed))
{
throw new cCTException("Zero-Indexed mismatch.");
}
for (UInt32 row = 0; row < _r; row++)
{
for (UInt32 column = 0; column < _c; column++)
{
float Current = _getelement(row, column) + m._getelement(row, column);
_setelement(row, column, Current);
}
}
return *this;
}
cMatrix& cMatrix::operator=(const cMatrix &m)
{
if (this != &m)
{
_r = m._r;
_c = m._c;
_zeroindexed = m._zeroindexed;
delete[] _internal;
_internal = new float[_r*_c];
UInt32 size = GetElementCount();
for (UInt32 i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
_internal[i] = m._internal[i];
}
}
return *this;
}
Your operators + and * must return by value, not by reference. You're returning a temporary variable by reference. Also, you're arguments are passed by value when it should be a const reference:
cMatrix cMatrix::operator+(cMatrix const& m)
{
cMatrix matrix(*this);
matrix += m;
return matrix;
}
cMatrix cMatrix::operator*(float f)
{
cMatrix matrix(*this);
matrix *= m;
return matrix;
}
You should take a look at Boost.Operators. This would let you implement only operator*= and operator+= and automatically provide correct implementations for operator+ and operator*.
PS: If you implement your matrix class just for the learning experience, don't hesitate to look at other implementations like the Matrix Template Library.
PPS: If you don't want to use boost, or if you just want to understand the best practice, take a look at Boost.Operator and do what they do.
IMO the canonical form of overloading addition is this:
class X {
public:
X& operator+=(const X& rhs) { /*add rhs to *this*/ }
};
inline X operator+(X lhs, const X& rhs) {lhs+=rhs; return lhs;}
The same goes for -, *, /, where applicable.
Note that + returns a copy, not a reference. That's important, because A+B creates a new value, so it cannot return a reference to an existing one.
Also, it is a free function. IMO it's best to implement those of the binary operators which can be implement either as a member or as a free function as free functions, if they treat their operands symmetrically (as does +), and as member functions, if they treat their operands asymmetrically (as +=, which changes its left argument. If you implement operator+ as a member, you will have to make the function const (X operator+(const X& rhs) const), so that it can be invoked for constant elements on the left side.