confusion about friend declarator

[Mark]

the following is an example of code that won't compile.
(I've reproduced the problem in a simplistic format )

....
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyClass
{
public:
unsigned int myint;

ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)
{
return o;
}

};

I get : error C2804: binary 'operator <<' has too many parameters

However I can fix this if I declare it as

friend ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)
{
return o;
}

Why? The function is doing nothing that requires access to the internals
of the class ( there are no internals !! )

 

[Jonathan Turkanis]

the following is an example of code that won't compile.
(I've reproduced the problem in a simplistic format )

...
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyClass
{
public:
unsigned int myint;

ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)
{
return o;
}

};

I get : error C2804: binary 'operator <<' has too many parameters

However I can fix this if I declare it as

friend ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)
{
return o;
}

Why? The function is doing nothing that requires access to the
internals of the class ( there are no internals !! )

The sedond declaration declares a non-member function in the enclosing scope.

Jonathan

 

[Rolf Magnus]

the following is an example of code that won't compile.
(I've reproduced the problem in a simplistic format )

...
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class MyClass
{
public:
unsigned int myint;

ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)

Here you define it as member operator with two parameters. But the member
operator must only have one. It takes the this-object as left-hand
argument.

{
return o;
}

};

I get : error C2804: binary 'operator <<' has too many parameters

However I can fix this if I declare it as

friend ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)
{
return o;
}

Why ?

Now it's a non-member operator, which needs two parameters. That one is just
a shorter way to write:

class MyClass
{
//...
friend ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass);
};

ostream& operator<<( ostream& o,MyClass& myclass)
{
return o;
}

The function is doing nothing that requires access to the internals
of the class ( there are no internals !! )

For the declaration of a function, it doesn't matter what that function
does.