Question

Is this possible? i get weird error message when i put char as the type:

inline bool operator==(const char *str1, const char *str2){
    // ...
}

Error message: error C2803: 'operator ==' must have at least one formal parameter of class type … which i dont understand at all.

I was thinking if i could directly compare stuff like:

const char *str1 = "something";
const char *str2 = "something else";
const char str3[] = "lol"; // not sure if this is same as above

and then compare:

if(str1 == str2){
   // ...
}

etc.

But i also want it to work with:

char *str = new char[100];

and:

char *str = (char *)malloc(100);

I am assuming every char array i use this way would end in NULL character, so the checking should be possible, but i understand it can be unsafe etc. I just want to know if this is possible to do, and how.

Answer 1

It is not possible. As your compiler points out, you cannot overload this operator for primitive data types. At least one side of the comparison must be non-primitive for the overload to be possible.

In the same sense, you cannot derive a new class from a primitive data type (to add functionality to it).