Objects and Operator Overloading C++

Question

class object_1
{
  public:
  ...

  friend ofstream& operator<<(ofstream &out, const object_1 &obj_1);
  friend object_2;

  private:

  char *pCh_mem1;
  char *pCh_mem2;
  int *pInt_mem1;
  int *pInt_mem2;
};


class object_2
{
public:
...
friend ofstream& operator<<(ofstream &out, const object_2 &obj_2); 
friend object_1;
}; 

Object1's implementation file is typical. Ctor, Dtor and some methods. I havent posted the method declarations in the header because their irrelevant to my problem.

It is very important that I discuss the objects lifetime.It is something that I really need to understand. Whats happening is that the operator overload function is then invoked when I call object_2 in main. So then the operator overload function is called:

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const object_2& obj_2)
{
object1::display(out)  //Calls method display in object1's I.F.
return out;
} 

here we are:

void object_1::display(std::ostream &out)
{
out << left  << setw(28) << "Person"   << setw(20) << "Place" ;
out << right << setw(5)  << "Thing"   << setw(5)  << "Idea" << endl;

out << left  << setw(28) << "----"   << setw(20) << "--------" ;
out << right << setw(5)  << "----- " << setw(5)  << "------" << endl;
} 

At the top of the implementation file is the IOMANIP library. So setw(X) and everything are defined. Im getting 0's all prinited to the console. Did my object go out of scope? I think so because when i do all these before I need to, it works fine. That is, when I call this function n e where else than in the body of the operator overload it works. I think because the object is redeclared:

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const object_2& obj_2);

then after I print the formatting method I need to print the information that was passed in from main to the first object's ctor; object_1. When that happens we are in the overload function which is similar and its the same implementation file. Im calling both methods from the overload in the second objects overload function:

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const object_1& obj_1)
{
out << obj_1.pCh_mem1 << obj_1.pCh_mem2;
return out;
}  

// main object_2 obj_2(4);

static void method1() 
{ 
 //do stuff 
}
static void method2() 
{
  //do stuff
}
static void method3() 
{
  //do stuff 
}
int main(void)
{
    method1();
    method2();
    method3();
    cout << obj_2;
    return 0; // and such
}

Once objc_2 is called like u see above, the operator overload for object2's class will then be called. I cant use any of my private members because its an illegal operatation. I guess my questions is. How can i print my private members from object1 in my object2's operator overloading function? static_cast's? I have a random snippet from main, Its complicated and I cant alter it.

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const object_2& obj_2)
{
object1::display(out)  //Calls method display in object1's I.F.
return out;
} 

What i've been trying to do, like you see above is call the other objects methods, and get the info from their. But that info is all NULL!! Im hopping from one I.F. to the next and its all NULL!!

Answer 1

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const object_2& obj_2)
{
    out << object_1[thatIndexThatIstoreditAt]
    return out;
}

I need to write a few reports on this stuff. =)

Answer 2

AFAICT, object_1 and object_2 are unrelated classes (except that they are friends). So an object_2 does not have any state relevant to an object_1.

Therefore, when you try to print an object_2 as if it were an object_1, this cannot possibly work. It is surprising that this call works at all:

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const object_2& obj_2)
{
object1::display(out)  //Calls method display in object1's I.F.
return out;
}

since there is no object_1 around here for which a method can be called (but then, you probably didn't mean this to be real code, since it's missing a semicolon also).

It's not completely clear what you want to achieve. Maybe you want object_2 to inherit from object_1, so that any object_2 will also have the members pCh_mem1 etc? Maybe you want a member of object_2 to be an object of type object_1?