Small question about operator overloading

[Alex Snast]

Hello

I'm wondering if it common to return a const reference to an object

const BinSearchTree& operator= (const BinSearchTree& rhs)
throw(bad_alloc);

or

BinSearchTree& operator= (const BinSearchTree& rhs)
throw(bad_alloc);

is there any standard on those

Thanks for any help.

 

[WaterWalk]

Hello

I'm wondering if it common to return a const reference to an object

const BinSearchTree& operator= (const BinSearchTree& rhs)
throw(bad_alloc);

or

BinSearchTree& operator= (const BinSearchTree& rhs)
throw(bad_alloc);

is there any standard on those

Thanks for any help.

Generally, an operator= is defined as:
obj &operator=(const obj &rhs)
{
if(this != &rhs)
{
//do assignment
}
return *this;
}

It returns *this, because this mimics operator= for built-in types.
For example:
int i = 1, j = 2, k = 3;
(i = j) = k; //this is ok

If you return const reference, the above statement will not compile.

 

[Alex Snast]

WaterWalk כתב:

Generally, an operator= is defined as:
obj &operator=(const obj &rhs)
{
if(this != &rhs)
{
//do assignment
}
return *this;
}

It returns *this, because this mimics operator= for built-in types.
For example:
int i = 1, j = 2, k = 3;
(i = j) = k; //this is ok

If you return const reference, the above statement will not compile.

Yeah i know the difference between the two i was just wondering what
to use.

Thanks for your help