ostream and ofstream overloading

[Chase Bradford]

Hey all
I have a class Foo, and I'm trying to overload the << operator for both
the ostream and ofstream for it. This way I should have two seperate
formats for output, one for files and another for the screen. Right now the
two declarations are:
std::ofstream& operator<<( std::ofstream &fos, const Foo &theClass);
std::ostream& operator<<( std::ostream &fos, const Foo &theClass);
The problem is that I keep getting this error with G++

choosing 'std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::operator<<
(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>&, const std::basic_string<_CharT,
_Traits, _Alloc>&) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits<char>,
_Alloc = std::allocator<char>]' over 'std::ofstream& operator<<(
std::ofstream &fos, const Foo &theClass)'

because worst conversion for the former is better than the worst conversion
for the latter
Googling for this error didn't turn up anything productive, so I was
wondering if it is possible to even do this?
Thanks.

[Ivan Vecerina]

"Chase Bradford" <ch******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bp***********@news.fsr.net...

I have a class Foo, and I'm trying to overload the << operator for both
the ostream and ofstream for it. This way I should have two seperate
formats for output, one for files and another for the screen. Right now the two declarations are:
std::ofstream& operator<<( std::ofstream &fos, const Foo &theClass);
std::ostream& operator<<( std::ostream &fos, const Foo &theClass); I wouldn't do this, because it will not work as expected when
chaining output calls with << :
void test( std::ofstream& fos , const Foo& theClass )
{
fos << theClass; // will call the 2nd operator
fos << "The class is: " << theClass; // will call the 1st one
// because the first << operator will return an std::ostream
}
The problem is that I keep getting this error with G++

choosing 'std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::operator<<
(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>&, const std::basic_string<_CharT,
_Traits, _Alloc>&) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits<char>,
_Alloc = std::allocator<char>]' over 'std::ofstream& operator<<(
std::ofstream &fos, const Foo &theClass)'

[ NB: you should provide a complete sample if possible ]
Does the Foo class happen to provide an implicit conversion,
eventually to std::string ? [now this can only be a guess]

I'm afraid you are abusing overloading and implicit conversions.
They can be useful techniques, but are also very error prone.
It would be safer to:
- Use dedicated functions instead of already overloaded operators
when wanting to provide non-standard behavior.
- Implicit conversions should be used sparingly -- named member
functions shall be preferred in most cases.
I hope this helps,
Ivan
--
http://ivan.vecerina.com

[Chase Bradford]

Thanks Ivan,

I was worried that might be the case so I had already implemented it with
the Push2File dedicated function. I was just hoping there was a way to do
this using the << operator with the particular streams.

"Ivan Vecerina" <pl*****************@ivan.vecerina.com> wrote in message
news:bp**********@newshispeed.ch...

"Chase Bradford" <ch******@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:bp***********@news.fsr.net...

I have a class Foo, and I'm trying to overload the << operator for both the ostream and ofstream for it. This way I should have two seperate
formats for output, one for files and another for the screen. Right now

the

two declarations are:
std::ofstream& operator<<( std::ofstream &fos, const Foo &theClass);
std::ostream& operator<<( std::ostream &fos, const Foo &theClass);

I wouldn't do this, because it will not work as expected when
chaining output calls with << :
void test( std::ofstream& fos , const Foo& theClass )
{
fos << theClass; // will call the 2nd operator
fos << "The class is: " << theClass; // will call the 1st one
// because the first << operator will return an std::ostream
}

The problem is that I keep getting this error with G++

choosing 'std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>& std::operator<<
(std::basic_ostream<_CharT, _Traits>&, const std::basic_string<_CharT,
_Traits, _Alloc>&) [with _CharT = char, _Traits = std::char_traits<char>, _Alloc = std::allocator<char>]' over 'std::ofstream& operator<<(
std::ofstream &fos, const Foo &theClass)'

[ NB: you should provide a complete sample if possible ]
Does the Foo class happen to provide an implicit conversion,
eventually to std::string ? [now this can only be a guess]

I'm afraid you are abusing overloading and implicit conversions.
They can be useful techniques, but are also very error prone.
It would be safer to:
- Use dedicated functions instead of already overloaded operators
when wanting to provide non-standard behavior.
- Implicit conversions should be used sparingly -- named member
functions shall be preferred in most cases.
I hope this helps,
Ivan
--
http://ivan.vecerina.com

[tom_usenet]

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 13:36:15 -0800, "Chase Bradford"
<ch******@hotmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Ivan,

I was worried that might be the case so I had already implemented it with
the Push2File dedicated function. I was just hoping there was a way to do
this using the << operator with the particular streams.

You could add formatting manipulators for your class. Check out this
article:

http://www.cuj.com/documents/s=7998/cujcexp1902austern/

Tom