CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++operator-overloadingcout
JoeBass
JoeBass

Reputation: 559

Can't cout from within overloaded function

I am poking around overloaded operators.

For some reason I don't get cout output from within my overloaded function.

class MyString {

    public:
        MyString(const char aString[20]){
            // copy the input string to "data"
            for(int i = 0; i < 20; i++){
                data[i] = aString[i];
            }
        }

    public:

        MyString operator=(const MyString copyFrom){
            MyString copyTo("");

            cout << "hi";

            for(int i = 0; i < 20; i++){
                copyTo.data[i] = copyFrom.data[i];
            }

            return copyTo;
        }

    public:
        char data[20]; // a pointer to memory
};


int main() {
    MyString a("hello");

    MyString b = a;

    cout << b.data << endl;

    return 0;
}

When I run my code, I get the following result:

C:\MinGW\bin>g++ stringoverloading3.cpp

C:\MinGW\bin>a.exe hello

C:\MinGW\bin>

Is there something about overloading that kills cout?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 180

Answers (1)

R Sahu
R Sahu

Reputation: 206627

The line

MyString b = a;

is not an assignment. It is initialization. The copy constructor is called to initialize the object. To invoke the assignment operator, use:

MyString b;
b = a;

In order to be able to use that, the default constructor has to be implemented first.

Upvotes: 2

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