Ostream << overloading confusion - c++

When you're overloading the << operator for a class (pretend this is defined as a friend in SomeClass), why do you both take a reference to the ostream and return that ostream?
ostream& operator<<(ostream& s, const SomeClass& c) {
//whatever
return s;
}
What benefit can returning the ostream be when it was already directly modifiable by reference? This seems redundant to me - though I'm sure it's not :)

It allows to "chain" output together. As in :
std::cout << someObj << someValue;
This is equivalent to something like :
operator<<(operator<<(std::cout, someObj), someValue);

This is not redundant, but useful for chaining calls. It's easier to see with functions like std::string::append, so I'll start with that:
std::string mystring("first");
mystring.append(" second");
mystring.append(" third");
can be rewritten as:
std::string mystring("first").append(" second").append(" third");
This is possible because .append() returns a reference to the string it modified, so we can keep adding .append(...) to the end. The code correlating to what you are doing is changing from this:
std::cout << "first";
std::cout << " second";
std::cout << " third";
into this. Since operator<< returns the stream, we can also chain these!
std::cout << "first" << " second" << " third";
see the similarity, and usefulness?

So that you can write chained-invocation of operator<< as:
stream << s1 << s2 << s3 ;
If you don't return ostream&, then you cannot write it more than once.
You can think of that either as:
operator<<(operator<<(operator<<(stream, s1), s2), s3);
Or as,
((stream << s1) << s2) << s3 ;
First (stream << s1) returns stream& on which you again invoke << and it becomes stream << s2 which returns stream& on which you again invoke << and it becomes stream << s3.

Ah, this is so linked output, like
cout << "this " << "is " << "a pen" << endl;
will still work.

Related

Overload << operator to change " " to "\n"

I am trying to overload
<<
operator. For instance
cout << a << " " << b << " "; // I am not allowed to change this line
is given I have to print it in format
<literal_valueof_a><"\n>
<literal_valueof_b><"\n">
<"\n">
I tried to overload << operator giving string as argument but it is not working. So I guess literal
" "
is not a string. If it is not then what is it. And how to overload it?
Kindly help;
Full code
//Begin Program
// Begin -> Non - Editable
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
// End -> Non -Editable
//---------------------------------------------------------------------
// Begin -> Editable (I have written )
ostream& operator << (ostream& os, const string& str) {
string s = " ";
if(str == " ") {
os << '\n';
}
else {
for(int i = 0; i < str.length(); ++i)
os << str[i];
}
return os;
}
// End -> Editable
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Begin -> No-Editable
int main() {
int a, b;
double s, t;
string mr, ms;
cin >> a >> b >> s >> t ;
cin >> mr >> ms ;
cout << a << " " << b << " " ;
cout << s << " " << t << " " ;
cout << mr << " " << ms ;
return 0;
}
// End -> Non-Editable
//End Program
Inputs and outputs
Input
30 20 5.6 2.3 hello world
Output
30
20
5.6
2.3
hello
world
" " is a string-literal of length one, and thus has type const char[2]. std::string is not related.
Theoretically, you could thus overload it as:
auto& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const char (&s)[2]) {
return os << (*s == ' ' && !s[1] ? +"\n" : +s);
}
While that trumps all the other overloads, now things get really hairy. The problem is that some_ostream << " " is likely not uncommon, even in templates, and now no longer resolves to calling the standard function. Those templates now have a different definition in the affected translation-units than in non-affected ones, thus violating the one-definition-rule.
What you should do, is not try to apply a global solution to a very local problem:
Preferably, modify your code currently streaming the space-character.
Alternatively, write your own stream-buffer which translates it as you wish, into newline.
Sure this is possible, as I have tested. It should be portable since you are specifying an override of a templated function operator<<() included from <iostream>. The " " string in your code is not a std::string, but rather a C-style string (i.e. a const char *). The following definition works correctly:
ostream& operator << (ostream& os, const char *str) {
if(strcmp(str, " ") == 0) {
os << '\n';
} else {
// Call the standard library implementation
operator<< < std::char_traits<char> > (os, str);
}
return os;
}
Note that the space after std::char_traits<char> is necessary only if you are pre-c++11.
Edit 1
I agree with Deduplicator that this is a potentially dangerous solution as it may cause undesirable consequences elsewhere in the code base. If it is needed only in the current file, you could make it a static function (by putting it within an unnamed namespace). Perhaps if you shared more about the specifics of your problem, we could come up with a cleaner solution for you.
You might want to go with a user defined literal, e.g.
struct NewLine {};
std::ostream& operator << (std::ostream& os, NewLine)
{
return os << "\n";
}
NewLine operator ""_nl(const char*, std::size_t) // "nl" for newline
{
return {};
}
This can be used as follows.
int main(int, char **)
{
std::cout << 42 << ""_nl << "43" << ""_nl;
return 0;
}
Note three things here:
You can pass any string literal followed by the literal identifier, ""_nl does the same thing as " "_nl or "hello, world"_nl. You can change this by adjusting the function returning the NewLine object.
This solution is more of an awkward and confusing hack. The only real use case I can imagine is pertaining the option to easily change the behavior at a later point in time.
When doing something non-standard, it's best to make that obvious and explicit - here, the user defined literal indeed shines, because << ""_nl is more likely to catch readers' attention than << " ".

Unable to concat strings in C++?

I have a method to log with the following definition:
void log(std::string s) {
std::string tag = "main";
std::cout << tag << " :" << s << std::endl;
}
I'm trying to call this method like this:
log("direction" << std::to_string(direction) << ", count: " << std::to_string(count));
direction and count are integers.
I'm getting this following error with << underlined in red:
no operator << matches these operands.
operand types are const char [10] << std::string
I have #include<string> in my header to make sure my strings are working as they should.
I tried std::string("direction") and still the issue was same.
Beginner in C++. Help would be appreciated.
operator<< isn't used for arbitrary string concatenation - it is called an "output stream operator", and it is only used in the context of std::ostream.
When you say...
std::cout << tag << " :" << s << std::endl;
...you're actually writing code roughly equivalent to:
std::cout.operator<<(tag).operator<<(" :").operator<<(s).operator<<(std::endl);
As you can see operator<< knows how to work with std::cout and std::string, but not between strings.
In order to concatenate std::string instances, you can simply use operator+:
log("direction" + std::to_string(direction) + ", count: " + std::to_string(count));
Please note that this concatenation technique is not the most efficient: you might want to look into std::stringstream or simply use std::string::reserve to avoid unnecessary memory allocations.
Substitute the << with the + operator as you are manipulating the string, not the stream:
log("direction" + std::to_string(direction) + ", count: " + std::to_string(count));
If you're determined to use the operator<< notation you need an object that understands it.
Here's such an object (I make no claims that this is a good idea):
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <iostream>
void log(std::string s) {
std::string tag = "main";
std::cout << tag << " :" << s << std::endl;
}
struct string_accumulator
{
std::ostringstream ss;
template<class T>
friend string_accumulator& operator<<(string_accumulator& sa, T const& value)
{
sa.ss << value;
return sa;
}
template<class T>
friend string_accumulator& operator<<(string_accumulator&& sa, T const& value)
{
return operator<<(sa, value);
}
operator std::string () { return ss.str(); }
};
inline auto collect() -> string_accumulator
{
return string_accumulator();
}
int main()
{
int direction = 1;
int count = 1;
log(collect() << "direction" << std::to_string(direction) << ", count: " << std::to_string(count));
}
The prototype of your function is void log(std::string s);. It awaits for an std::string. So you need to pass a string to it, not a stream!
So, change this:
log("direction" << std::to_string(direction) << ", count: " << std::to_string(count));
to this:
log("direction" + std::to_string(direction) + ", count: " + std::to_string(count));
where I only changed the << operator to + operator. It will now concatenate everything inside the parentheses to a single std::string.
Your attempt implies that you wanted to pass std::ostream as the parameter. Maybe you want to read C++ Passing ostream as parameter. However, if I were you, I would just overload <<.
why don't you use:
// just include thisusing namespace std;

C++ Overloading operator<< outputs address

So in my program I have some classes - Button, Window and WindowButton. Button consists only of text, Window - of a button and coordinates(x,y), and WindowButton consists of a Window.
In WindowButton, I have overloaded the << operator like this:
ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, WindowButton& ref)
{
ref.print();
return out;
}
Where the print function looks like:
void WindowButton::print()
{
theWindow->print();
}
And the window print function, in window class:
void Window::print()
{
char* buttonText = button->getText();
char* theText = new char[strlen(buttonText)+1];
strcpy(theText, buttonText);
cout << endl << "Window with coordinates (" << this->coord.x << "," << this->coord.y << ") , and button text \"" << theText << "\"" << endl;
}
In main:
WindowButton *test = new WindowButton();
cout << endl << test;
test->print();
The last line provides the right output, but the second line provides just a memory adress. What am I doing wrong? Everything should be working fine, because the test->print(); works fine.
You are passing a pointer to operator<< which expects a &.
cout << endl << *test;
You might also make it:
ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const WindowButton& ref){
Which assumes print doesn't actually modify.
But, the bigger question is why are you using the cout ostream to trigger printing to theWindow -- these appear to be (though aren't) logically disconnected processes. You could pass the given stream into Window::print:
void Window::print(ostream& stream) {
and use that stream in place of cout. This avoids hard-coding cout into Window::print().
It's a pointer, so you'll need to dereference it for the operator to work:
cout << endl << *test;
This line
cout << endl << test;
prints a pointer to WindowButton, and there is an ostream& operator<< specialization for pointers, which prints the address. You can try de-referencing the pointer:
cout << endl << (*test);
As an aside, there is little point in overloading the ostream& operator<< in a way that eventually just prints to std::cout. The point of such an operator is that you can stream to any ostream, not just cout. You could fix this by modifying your print functions to take an ostream by reference, and modify it:
void WindowButton::print(std::ostream& out) const {
theWindow->print(out);
}
and
void Window::print(ostream& out) const {
// stuff
out << "Window with coordinates (" << this->coord.x << "," << this->coord.y << ") , and button text \"" << theText << "\"" << endl;
}
and finally
ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const WindowButton& ref){
ref.print(out);
return out;
}

Difficulty in ostream

ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, const PT& p)
{
os << "(" << p.x << "," << p.y << ")";
}
PT is a structure and x , y are its members.
Can someone please explain what exactly the above line does. Can't the desired text be printed using cout?
I came across this snippet of code from this site.
It's a custom overload for operator<<.
It means you can do this:
PT p = ...;
std::cout << p << "\n";
or this:
PT p = ...;
std::stringstream ss;
ss << p << "\n";
std::cout << ss;
or lots of other useful stuff.
However, it should be noted that the code you quoted won't work properly. It needs to return os.
This provides a method of outputting the PT. Now, you can use this:
PT p;
std::cout << p;
This gets translated into a call of
operator<< (std::cout, p);
That matches your overload, so it works, printing the x and y values in brackets with less effort on the user's part. In fact, it doesn't have to be cout. It can be anything that "is" a std::ostream. There are quite a few things that inherit from it, meaning they are std::ostreams as well, and so this works with them too. std::ofstream, for file I/O, is one example.
One thing that the sample you found doesn't do, but should, though, is return os;. Without doing that, you can't say std::cout << p << '\n'; because the result of printing p will not return cout for you to use to print the newline.
It allows the << operator to append the PT object to the stream. It seems the object has elements x and y that are added with a comma separator.
This operator << overloading for outputing object of PT class .
Here:
ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, const PT& p)
First param is for output stream where p will be appended.
It returns reference to os for chaining like this:
cout << pt << " it was pt" << endl;

print time on each call to std::cout

How would someone do that?
for example I do like:
std::cout << "something";
then it should print the time before "something"
Make your own stream for that :) This should work:
class TimedStream {
public:
template<typename T>
TimedStream& operator<<(const T& t) {
std::cout << getSomeFormattedTimeAsString() << t << std::endl;
return *this;
}
};
TimedStream timed_cout;
void func() {
timed_cout << "123";
}
You'd be able to use this class for every type for which std::cout << obj can be done, so no further work is needed.
But please note that the time will be written before every <<, so you cannot chain them easily. Another solution with explicit timestamp is:
class TimestampDummy {} timestamp;
ostream& operator<<(ostream& o, TimestampDummy& t) {
o << yourFancyFormattedTimestamp();
}
void func() {
cout << timestamp << "123 " << 456 << endl;
}
You could use a simple function that prints the timestamp and then returns the stream for further printing:
std::ostream& tcout() {
// Todo: get a timestamp in the desired format
return std::cout << timestamp << ": ";
}
You would then call this function instead of using std::cout directly, whenever you want a timestamp inserted:
tcout() << "Hello" << std::endl;
ostream& printTimeWithString(ostream& out, const string& value)
{
out << currentTime() << ' ' << value << std::endl;
return out;
}
Generate current time using your favourite Boost.DateTime output format.
This looks like homework. You want something in the line of:
std::cout << time << "something";
Find a way the retrieve the time on your system, using a system call.
Then you'll have to implement a << operator for your system-dependent time class/struct.