Operator Overloading (C++)

[shaticus]

For a computer science project I have to overload a few operators in C++. We are supposed to make them friends of the class we are writting. Does anyone know of a good tutorial on operator overloading on the ostream?

I am trying to do something like this:

class book{
friend ostream &operator<<(ostream&, book&);

};


ostream &operator<<(ostream &output , book &bookOut)
{
output << "text\n";

return output;
}

When I try to compile it tells me that ostream is incomplete and wants a , before the & in the declaration friend ostream &operator<<(...)
What is wrong with my code, or is it something with the compiler?


Thanks

[alfie2]

looks fine to me, although some compilers dont like the & ampersand
on the rightside.

Borland C++ likes it this ways:
friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&, book&);
-------------^
-------------+------------& is here instead


------------------------------------
some compilers wanted:

friend std:: ostream &operator<<( std:: ostream&, book&);
then.....
std:: ostream &operator<<( std:: ostream, book&);

Notice the "std::" there is no space between std:: and ostream!
I have to do this because this forum formater makes smilies out of the them!

------------------------------------

if your need more references try these pages:

overloading
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/tut4-2.html

friend
http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/tut4-3.html

hope this helps a bit

[shaticus]

Thanks, that fixed it!