Operator overloading

Prerequisite for operator overloading    is we should know about friend function

Overloading an operator means programming an operator to work on operands of types it has not been designed to operate.

Overloading an operator can be done in 2 ways:

1)      By using member functions

2)      By using friend function

RULES FOR OPERATOR OVERLOADING

 Over loading relational operators

Over loading increement and decreement operators:

 

Syntax using member functions:

class < class_name >

{

< return_type > operator < op > (<arg_list>);                        //prototype

};

< return_type> < class_name >:: operator <op> (<arg_list>)           // definition

{

//function body

}

Syntax using friend functions:

class < class_name >

{

friend < return_ type > operator < op > (<arg_ list> );       //prototype

};

< return_type> operator <op> (<arg list>)                                      //definition

{

//function body

}

Overloading arithmetic operator ‘ + ‘ using member function