left-hand operand of comma has no effect

[s88]

Hi all,

I like to implement a new syntax in C++ for my work. It supposed to be
(a,b) , which represents a+b, for example.
My implementation as following...

inline myClass operator () (myClass &left, myClass &right);

the usage of this operator is
cout << (a,b) << endl;

However, g++ reports
"warning: left-hand operand of comma has no effect"

Does it mean the 'a' has no effect? How should I do?

thanks,

Dave

 

[Marc]

I like to implement a new syntax in C++ for my work. It supposed to be
(a,b) , which represents a+b, for example.
My implementation as following...

inline myClass operator () (myClass &left, myClass &right);

That's not how operator() works, it is only for member functions, to be
used as myobject(left,right).

the usage of this operator is
cout << (a,b) << endl;

However, g++ reports
"warning: left-hand operand of comma has no effect"

Does it mean the 'a' has no effect? How should I do?

You can't redefine the meaning of parentheses, but you can redefine that
of commas.

struct A { int i; };
int operator,(A a,A b){return a.i+b.i;}
int main(){
A a,b;
a.i=2;
b.i=3;
std::cout << (a,b) << std::endl;
}

 

[Victor Bazarov]

I like to implement a new syntax in C++ for my work. It supposed to be
(a,b) , which represents a+b, for example.
My implementation as following...

inline myClass operator () (myClass&left, myClass&right);

the usage of this operator is
cout<< (a,b)<< endl;

However, g++ reports
"warning: left-hand operand of comma has no effect"

Does it mean the 'a' has no effect? How should I do?

The function call operator is only definable as a member of a class, not
as a stand-alone function. The compiler understands your syntax as

cout << (operator,(a,b)) << endl;

and, of course, 'a' has no effect and 'b' is the value of the expression
in the parentheses.

What you might want is to define the operator comma in your class, like so:

class myClass {
...
public:
myClass operator,(myClass const& right) const {
myClass const& left = *this;
... // do what you did earlier with 'left' and 'right'
}
};

V

 

[Jim Langston]

Hi all,

I like to implement a new syntax in C++ for my work. It supposed to be
(a,b) , which represents a+b, for example.
My implementation as following...

inline myClass operator () (myClass &left, myClass &right);

the usage of this operator is
cout << (a,b) << endl;

However, g++ reports
"warning: left-hand operand of comma has no effect"

Does it mean the 'a' has no effect? How should I do?

If I do
std::cout << (1, 2, 3);
the output is 3. The right most value is output. In this particular
case, 1 and 2 do absolutely nothing since they have no side effects.

However, if I do
std::cout << ( foo(), bar(), 3 );
then foo() and bar() would have effect, even though they are not
output they may have side effects.

Now, since ( x, y ) works this way, are you positive you want to
change C++'s behavior for your own classes to act differently? What
is wrong with just using a+b?