Question

I have defined an overload for operator -= for my Rational-class:

rational.hh:
class Rational {

public:
    Rational(int numerator, int denominator) : numerator(numerator), denominator(denominator)
    { }

    int getNumerator() const;
    int getDenominator() const;
    Rational& operator-=(const Rational& bar);

private:
    int numerator, denominator;

rational.cc:
Rational& Rational::operator-=(const Rational& subtracted) {
    Rational result((*this).getNumerator()*subtracted.getDenominator() - (*this).getDenominator()*subtracted.getNumerator(), (*this).getDenominator()*subtracted.getDenominator());
    return *this;
}

The code compiles without warnings but this piece of code does not change the value of r:

  Rational r(1, 1);
  r -= Rational(1, 2);

Any ideas why?

Answer 1

Your -= operator should be changing the values of numerator and denominator, but it does not. Add code to set these values into this, instead of creating result:

Rational& Rational::operator-=(const Rational& subtracted) {
    numerator = (*this).getNumerator()*subtracted.getDenominator() - (*this).getDenominator()*subtracted.getNumerator();
    denominator = (*this).getDenominator()*subtracted.getDenominator();
    return *this;
}