Question

I am currently working on overloading the == operator for my linked list. I have the operator in my header set up like the following:

class sqrlst
{
public:
std::vector<int> vlist;

bool operator == (iterator const & rhs )
{
     return this->iter == rhs.iter;
};

I then created a method in my header file with the following code

void test()
    {
        bool flag;
        if (vlist.begin()==vlist.begin())
        {
            flag=true;
        }
    };
};

However when this method is called it does not go to my overloaded == operator function when it hits the if statment. When I put the debug point on the overload function it says that the line will not be reached.

Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

EDIT: vlist is a list of ints.

Answer 1

Well, std::vector member functions begin() and end() returns iterator of type std::vector<T>::iterator, or `std::vector<T>::const_iterator, depending on whether the vector object is const or non-const. Whatever it is, the iterator type is not defined by you. Overloading == in your class sqrlist does nothing. The overload == should be a member of vector’s iterator class, which you’re not allowed to edit.

Also note that vector’s iterator class has already overloaded == and != operators. So when you compare iterators using ==, it is invoking a member function of vector’s iterator class.