How Can Operator Overloading Be Used for Member Access in C ?

Operator Overloading for Member Access

Operator overloading extends the functionality of predefined operators to custom classes, allowing programmers to define how operators behave when applied to their instances. This question explores the specific behavior of member access operators ->, ., -> etc.

What is Passed to and Returned from Operator Functions?

• ->: Takes no arguments and returns an object of class type. The returned object is used for member lookup.
• ->*: Accepts any arguments and can return anything. It is not limited by the non-overloaded version's behavior.
• .*, .: Cannot be overloaded.

How Do Operator Functions Determine the Member Being Referred To?

• ->: The returned object from the operator function represents the member being accessed.
• ->*: The member is not known to the operator function. However, it may take arguments that specify the member.
• .*, .: These operators perform built-in member lookup and cannot be overloaded.

Const Considerations:

In general, both const and non-const versions of operator[] are required for classes. However, member access operators:

• ->: Only require a non-const version.
• ->*: Do not have specific const considerations.
• .*, .: Are not overloadable.

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