Question

Ok, I know that operator. is not overloadable but I need something like that.

I have a class MyClass that indirectly embeds (has a) a std::string and need to behave exactly like a std::string but unfortunately cannot extend std::string.

Any idea how to achieve that ?

Edit: I want that the lines below to compile fine

MyClass strHello1(“Hello word”);

std::string strValue = strHello1;
const char* charValue = strHello1.c_str();

Answer 1

As per your later edit, that:

MyClass strHello1("Hello word");

std::string strValue = strHello1;
const charValue = strHello1.c_str();

should compile fine, the only solution is to write a wrapper over std::string:

class MyClass
{
private:
   std::string _str;
public:
   MyClass(const char*);
   //... all other constructors of string

   operator std::string& ();
   //... all other operators of string

   const char* c_str();
   //... all other methods of string

   friend std::string& operator + ( std::string str, Foo f);
};

//+ operator, you can add 2 strings
std::string& operator + ( std::string str, Foo f);

This however is tedious work and must be tested thoroughly. Best of luck!