Question

I need to create an operator that will copy the contents in one array to another. A.K.A an equal operator. I am thinking something along these lines:

    operator=(string array[10][10], string array2[10][10])
    {
        int row = 0; int column = 0;
        for(column=0; column<=9; column++)
        {
            for(row=0; row<=9; row++){
                array2[row][column]=array[row][column];
            }
        }
    }

I am just not sure on the syntax of operator declarations which is my problem. I know how to make the inside code even if I got the code displayed above wrong. I am just not sure how to write the “operator=(string ….)”

Answer 1

You can’t. For two reasons

• An array is a built in type, operator overloading is allowed only if at least one of the arguments is a user-defined type
• operator = is one of the 4 operators (along with [], (), and ->) that have to be members of the class that they are overloaded for¹. An array is not a class.

What you can do is

• Have a named function instead of operator

• wrap the array into a class

• use vector<vector<string> > which already has the assignment (<– my vote goes here)

¹_{As to why these have to be members, you can see this question of mine: Rationale of enforcing some operators to be members}