what is return type of assignment operator?

Question

I am just starting C++. I am a bit confused about the return type of assignment and dereference operator. I am following the book C++ Primer. At various occasions, the autho

Answer 1

They can both be anything, but usually operator = returns the current object by reference, i.e.

A& A::operator = ( ... )
{
   return *this;
}

And yes, "reference to the type of left hand operand" and "lvalue referring to left hand operand" mean the same thing.

The dereference operator can have basically any return type. It mostly depends on the logic of the program, because you're overloading the operator that applies to an object, not to a pointer to the object. Usually, this is used for smart pointers, or iterators, and return the object they wrap around:

struct smart_ptr
{
   T* innerPtr;
   T* smart_ptr::operator* ()
   {
      return innerPtr;
   }
}

smart_ptr p; 
T* x = *p;