Unary and Binary Operators
Learn the general syntax and implementation of unary and binary operators in programming, both inside and outside class definitions.
In C++, operators play a fundamental role in performing various operations on data. They can be broadly categorized into two types: unary operators, which take a single parameter, and binary operators, which work with two parameters. Each type of operator can serve a specific purpose in manipulating custom data types and their expressions.
Let’s explore these two categories in depth to gain a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively overload these functions and apply them to a user-defined data type.
Overloading unary operators
Unary operators act on a single operand. Here are some common unary operators:
Prefix and postfix increment (
++
,--
)Unary plus and minus (
+
,-
)Logical NOT (
!
)Function call operator (
()
)Others (
*
,&
,~
)
We can overload unary operators both inside and outside a class. When overloading inside a class, it’s common to use constant (const
) member functions to ensure the left argument is received as const
in the this
pointer.
Example: Overloading the unary minus (-
) operator inside and outside a class
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