BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL with pair<int, int> and custom operator <<

Question

When attempting to do a BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(pair, pair), gcc doesnt find the stream operator for pair, inspite of declaring it. The funny thing is that std::out finds the operator.

ostream& operator<<(ostream& s, const pair<int,int>& p) {
    s << '<' << p.first << ',' << p.second << '>';
    return s;
}


BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(works)
{
    pair<int,int> expected(5, 5);
    pair<int,int> actual  (5, 5);
    std::cout << expected << std::endl;
    std::cout << actual   << std::endl;
    BOOST_CHECK(actual == expected);
}

BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(no_work)
{
    pair<int,int> expected(5, 5);
    pair<int,int> actual  (5, 5);
    BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(actual, expected);
}

This doesnt compile with the error:

...  instantiated from here
../boost-atp/release/include/boost/test/test_tools.hpp:326:9: error: no match for ‘operator<<’ in ‘ostr << t’

Answer 1

Putting operator<< in std like Remus's answer is undefined behavior in the C++ 14 draft (N4296 section:17.6.4.2.1). Boost provides a hook (used by this answer) and you can write:

namespace boost
{
    namespace test_tools
    {
        template<typename T,typename U>
        struct print_log_value<std::pair<T, U> >
        {
            void operator()(std::ostream& os, std::pair<T, U> const& pr)
            {
                os << "<" << std::get<0>(pr) << "," << std::get<1>(pr) << ">";
            }
        };
    }
}

print_log_value is a template so if you are not declaring a templated value like pair<T,U>, you will need to write something like:

template<>
struct print_log_value<MyType>{ /* implementation here*/ };

Edit

If you are using boost 1.59 or later you need to use namespace boost::test_tools::tt_detail instead. That is, the code needs to start:

namespace boost
{
    namespace test_tools
    {
        namespace tt_detail
        {

Answer 2

Try putting the operator itself in the std namespace:

namespace std
{
  ostream& operator<<(ostream& s, const pair<int,int>& p) {
    s << '<' << p.first << ',' << p.second << '>';
    return s;
  }
}

Update: perhaps this is why the ADL fails (at least on llvm):

Just like before, unqualified lookup didn't find any declarations with the name operator<<. Unlike before, the argument types both contain class types: one of them is an instance of the class template type std::basic_ostream, and the other is the type ns::Data that we declared above. Therefore, ADL will look in the namespaces std and ns for an operator<<. Since one of the argument types was still dependent during the template definition, ADL isn't done until the template is instantiated during Use, which means that the operator<< we want it to find has already been declared. Unfortunately, it was declared in the global namespace, not in either of the namespaces that ADL will look in!

Answer 3

I was looking for something similar, a way to customize the output string to print integers in hex. Injecting an operator into the std namespace would work, but every BOOST_CHECK in my test would be printed in hex.

So I injected some custom operators in the boost namespace that I could control with some global bools.

See my answer here boost-check-fails-to-compile-operator-for-custom-types.