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cin question

Hi,

When

cin >> myVar

is successful, the ">>" operator returns the cin object. But when it fails
it returns 0, or false. My question is: Since a function can only return
one type, how is this possible? Is the cin object being cast to a boolean?
If so, how does one define, in general, casting for custom classes? If not,
what is going on here?

Thanks,
cpp
Jul 19 '05 #1
3 4389
"cppaddict" <cp*******@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:JY****************@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com
Hi,

When

cin >> myVar

is successful, the ">>" operator returns the cin object. But when it
fails it returns 0, or false. My question is: Since a function can
only return one type, how is this possible? Is the cin object being
cast to a boolean? If so, how does one define, in general, casting
for custom classes? If not, what is going on here?

Thanks,
cpp


cin always returns a reference to itself, regardless of whether an operation
succeeds or fails. The istream class also contains a "conversion operator",
something along the lines of

operator bool()
{
return everythingOK;
}

where everythingOK is a boolean recording success or failure (the syntax for
this operator is unusual, but it is described in any decent textbook). Thus
if you use

if (cin >> x)
//

then this becomes

if (cin)
//

and, because if () takes a boolean argument, the conversion operator is
called, so it becomes

if (everythingOK)
//
--
John Carson
1. To reply to email address, remove donald
2. Don't reply to email address (post here instead)

Jul 19 '05 #2
"cppaddict" <cp*******@yahoo.com> writes:
Hi,

When

cin >> myVar

is successful, the ">>" operator returns the cin object. But when it fails
it returns 0, or false. My question is: Since a function can only return
one type, how is this possible? Is the cin object being cast to a boolean?
If so, how does one define, in general, casting for custom classes? If not,
what is going on here?


False premise, false conclusion. The >> operator *always* returns
the stream object (cin, in your case), never a bool or an
integer. However, the stream object itself can be converted to
pointer-to-void (or thereby to bool), which will depend on
the return value of the fail() member function.

--
Micah J. Cowan
mi***@cowan.name

Jul 19 '05 #3
"John Carson" <do***********@datafast.net.au> wrote in message
news:3f********@usenet.per.paradox.net.au

cin always returns a reference to itself, regardless of whether an
operation succeeds or fails.


More precisely, the istream >> operator returns a reference to cin when
called from a cin object.

--
John Carson
1. To reply to email address, remove donald
2. Don't reply to email address (post here instead)

Jul 19 '05 #4

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