9.3 — Overloading the I/O operators

By Alex on October 1st, 2007 | last modified by Alex on October 1st, 2007

Overloading <<

For classes that have multiple member variables, printing each of the individual variables on the screen can get tiresome fast. For example, consider the following class:

class Point

{

private:

double m_dX, m_dY, m_dZ;

public:

Point(double dX=0.0, double dY=0.0, double dZ=0.0)

{

m_dX = dX;

m_dY = dY;

m_dZ = dZ;

}

double GetX() { return m_dX; }

double GetY() { return m_dY; }

double GetZ() { return m_dZ; }

};

If you wanted to print an instance of this class to the screen, you’d have to do something like this:

Point cPoint(5.0, 6.0, 7.0);

cout << "(" << cPoint.GetX() << ", " <<

cPoint.GetY() << ", " <<

cPoint.GetZ() << ")";

And that’s just for one instance! It would be much easier if you could simply type:

1 2	Point cPoint(5.0, 6.0, 7.0); cout << cPoint;

and get the same result. By overloading the << operator, you can! Overloading operator<< is similar to overloading operator+ (they are both binary operators), except that the parameter types are different. Consider the expression cout << cPoint. If the operator is <<, what are the operands? The left operand is the cout object, and the right operand is your Point class object. cout is actually an object of type ostream. Therefore, our overloaded function will look like this:

1	friend ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint);

Implementation of operator<< is fairly straightforward -- because C++ already knows how to output doubles using operator<<, and our members are all doubles, we can simply use operator<< to output the member variables of our Point. Here is the above Point class with the overloaded operator<<.

class Point

{

private:

double m_dX, m_dY, m_dZ;

public:

Point(double dX=0.0, double dY=0.0, double dZ=0.0)

{

m_dX = dX;

m_dY = dY;

m_dZ = dZ;

}

friend ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint);

double GetX() { return m_dX; }

double GetY() { return m_dY; }

double GetZ() { return m_dZ; }

};

ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint)

{

// Since operator<< is a friend of the Point class, we can access

// Point's members directly.

out << "(" << cPoint.m_dX << ", " <<

cPoint.m_dY << ", " <<

cPoint.m_dZ << ")";

return out;

}

This is pretty straightforward -- note how similar our output line is to the line we wrote when we were outputting our members manually. They are almost identical, except cout has become parameter out! The only tricky part here is the return type. Why are we returning an object of type ostream? The answer is that we do this so we can "chain" output commands together, such as cout << cPoint << endl;

Consider what would happen if our operator<< returned void. When the compiler evaluates cout << cPoint << endl;, due to the precedence/associativity rules, it evaluates this expression as (cout << cPoint) << endl;. cout << cPoint calls our void-returning overloaded operator<< function, which returns void. Then the partially evaluated expression becomes: void << endl;, which makes no sense!

By returning the out parameter as the return type instead, (cout << cPoint) returns cout. Then our partially evaluated expression becomes: cout << endl;, which then gets evaluated itself!

Any time we want our overloaded binary operators to be chainable in such a manner, the left operand should be returned.

Just to prove it works, consider the following example, which uses the Point class with the overloaded operator<< we wrote above:

int main()

{

Point cPoint1(2.0, 3.0, 4.0);

Point cPoint2(6.0, 7.0, 8.0);

using namespace std;

cout << cPoint1 << " " << cPoint2 << endl;

return 0;

}

This produces the following result:

(2.0, 3.0, 4.0) (6.0, 7.0, 8.0)

Overloading >>

It is also possible to overload the input operator. This is done in a manner very analogous to overloading the output operator. The key thing you need to know is that cin is an object of type istream. Here’s our Point class with an overloaded operator>>:

class Point

{

private:

double m_dX, m_dY, m_dZ;

public:

Point(double dX=0.0, double dY=0.0, double dZ=0.0)

{

m_dX = dX;

m_dY = dY;

m_dZ = dZ;

}

friend ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint);

friend istream& operator>> (istream &in, Point &cPoint);

double GetX() { return m_dX; }

double GetY() { return m_dY; }

double GetZ() { return m_dZ; }

};

ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint)

{

// Since operator<< is a friend of the Point class, we can access

// Point's members directly.

out << "(" << cPoint.m_dX << ", " <<

cPoint.m_dY << ", " <<

cPoint.m_dZ << ")";

return out;

}

istream& operator>> (istream &in, Point &cPoint)

{

in >> cPoint.m_dX;

in >> cPoint.m_dY;

in >> cPoint.m_dZ;

return in;

}

Here’s a sample program using both the overloaded operator<< and operator>>:

int main()

{

using namespace std;

cout << "Enter a point: " << endl;

Point cPoint;

cin >> cPoint;

cout << "You entered: " << cPoint << endl;

return 0;

}

Assuming the user enters 3.0 4.5 7.26 as input, the program produces the following result:

You entered: (3, 4.5, 7.26)

Conclusion

Overloading operator<< and operator>> make it extremely easy to output your class to screen and accept user input.

Before we finish this lesson, there is one additional point that is important to make. The overloaded output operator<<

1	friend ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint);

is actually better written as

1	friend ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, const Point &cPoint);

This way, you will be able to output both const and non-const objects. However, for the overloaded input operator>>, you will have to leave cPoint as non-const because the overloaded operator>> modifies cPoints members.

By now, you should be starting to become comfortable with classes and passing parameters by reference. In future lessons, we will start making more of our parameters const references (which we should have been doing all along, but have abstained for purposes of simplicity). It is a good habit to get into early.

9.4 -- Overloading the comparison operators

Index

9.2 -- Overloading the arithmetic operators

yakisobskie

July 26, 2014 at 9:47 am · Reply

Hi Alex! Great tutorial! btw Everything worked except for the operand>> tutorial. I'm getting an error "no match for operator>>...". I'm unable to understancd istream.

How come there is no match for operand>>(istream, double) while
operand<<(ostream, double) is working fine? Thanks!

01| #include
02| using namespace std;
.
.
.

34| istream& operator>> (istream& x, const Point& y)
35| {
36| x >> y.m_dX;
37| x >> y.m_dY;
38| x >> y.m_dZ;
39| return x;
40| }

|36|error: no match for 'operator>>' (operand types are 'std::istream {aka std::basic_istream}' and 'const double')|

ict_ifycent2

February 4, 2014 at 1:03 pm · Reply

WONDERFUL TUTORIAL BY MR.ALEX..

I REALLY UNDERSTAND....

Monster

April 5, 2013 at 7:14 pm · Reply

Thanks alot for accepting me as a member in this great website.
I am interested in learning C++ so much and this website is a great source to depend on in learning C++.....

etam

December 11, 2012 at 10:39 am · Reply

You should mention that "<>" are originally arithmetic bitwise shift operators. http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/operator_arithmetic

zynk

June 7, 2012 at 8:48 am · Reply

ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Point &cPoint)
{
// Since operator<< is a friend of the Point class, we can access
// Point's members directly.
out << "(" << cPoint.m_dX << ", " <<
cPoint.m_dY << ", " <<
cPoint.m_dZ << ")";
return out;
}

Hey Alex
we are returning a reference to the object 'out', which has local scope. Is it legal??

sw1983

February 28, 2011 at 3:47 am · Reply

Nevermind I'd forgotten to use the namespace. haha, kick myself.

February 28, 2011 at 1:48 am · Reply

Hello, my compiler (visual c++ 2010) will not recognise ostream. It is saying it is an undeclared identifier. I've double checked and ostream is in the iostream library, I've included iostream. I thought it was something I was doing but I have copied and pasted Alex's code into my program and still I get the same error. What am I missing? I haven't written the function yet because the syntax gets underlined in red so I know it won't compile anyway.

#include <iostream> #include <string>


class Employee

{

private:

	static int  sm_nID;

	int			m_nID ;

	char		m_strName[25];

	double		m_dWage;	
public:

	Employee(char *strName="Blank", double dWage=10.00)

	{

		using namespace std;

		strncpy_s(m_strName, strName, 25);

		m_nID = ++sm_nID;

		m_dWage = dWage;

	}
	char* GetName()

	{

		return m_strName;

	}
	int GetID()

	{

		return m_nID;

	}
	double GetWage()

	{

		return m_dWage;

	}
	void Print()

	{

		using namespace std;

		cout << "Name: " << m_strName << "\t" << "Employee ID: " << m_nID << "\t" <<

			"Wage: " << m_dWage << "\n";

	}
	static void PrintID()

	{

		std::cout << sm_nID;

	}
	friend void ResetName(Employee &cEmployee);

	friend class FriendOfMine;

	/****************************HERE**************************************************/

        friend ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Employee &cEmployee);

};
/****************************HERE**************************************************/
ostream& operator<< (ostream &out, Employee &cEmployee)

{
}
int Employee::sm_nID = 0;
void ResetName(Employee &cEmployee)

{

	strncpy(cEmployee.m_strName, "Reset", 25);

}
class FriendOfMine

{

public:

	void WageChange(Employee &cEmployee)

	{

		cEmployee.m_dWage = 5;

	}

};
int main()

{

return 0; }

rebelsoul

January 5, 2011 at 3:30 pm · Reply

Hello Alex,
Thank you for such a good tutorial. I am facing a problem while running the above given code. I am using visual studio 2008, following your code and same input. However in result only the first input variable value is printed the rest are discarded.
Here is a extract after debug.
cPoint {m_dX=6.0000000000000000 m_dY=0.00000000000000000 m_dZ=0.00000000000000000

Could you please guide, why the program is not taking all the value?

ARVIND

December 22, 2010 at 8:27 am · Reply

While overloading output stream operator << as member member function I am getting following error:

ostreamOprt.cpp:32: error: no match for 'operator<<' in 'std::cout << objs'
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:63: note: candidates are: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream
::operator<<(std::basic_ostream&(*)(std::basic_ostream&)) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std:
:char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:74: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(std::basic_ios&(*)(std::basic_ios&)) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:86: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(std::ios_base&(*)(std::ios_base&)) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:121: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(long int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:155: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(long unsigned int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:98: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(bool) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:178: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::oper
ator<<(short int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:189: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::oper
ator<<(short unsigned int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:193: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::oper
ator<<(int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:204: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::oper
ator<<(unsigned int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:179: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(long long int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:214: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(long long unsigned int) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:238: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(double) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:219: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::oper
ator<<(float) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:261: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(long double) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:284: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(const void*) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:307: note: std::basic_ostream& std::basic_ostream::operator<<(std::basic_streambuf*) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:449: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream&, char) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:505: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream
&, char) [with _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:460: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream&, signed char) [with _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:465: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream&, unsigned char) [with _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:567: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostre
am&, const char*) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/bits/ostream.tcc:612: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream
&, const char*) [with _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:499: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream&, const signed char*) [with _Traits = std::char_traits]
/usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-cygwin/3.4.4/include/c++/ostream:504: note: std::basic_ostream& std::operator<<(std::basic_ostream&, const unsigned char*) [with _Traits = std::char_traits]

Alex can you please explain why?

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9.3 — Overloading the I/O operators

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