How to properly overload the << operator for an ostream?

Question

I am writing a small matrix library in C++ for matrix operations. However my compiler complains, where before it did not. This code was left on a shelf for 6 months and in b

Answer 1

Assuming that we're talking about overloading operator << for all classes derived from std::ostream to handle the Matrix class (and not overloading << for Matrix class), it makes more sense to declare the overload function outside the Math namespace in the header.

Use a friend function only if the functionality cannot be achieved via the public interfaces.

Matrix.h

namespace Math { 
    class Matrix { 
        //...
    };  
}
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const Math::Matrix&);

Note that the operator overload is declared outside the namespace.

Matrix.cpp

using namespace Math;
using namespace std;

ostream& operator<< (ostream& os, const Matrix& obj) {
    os << obj.getXYZ() << obj.getABC() << '\n';
    return os;
}

On the other hand, if your overload function does need to be made a friend i.e. needs access to private and protected members.

Math.h

namespace Math {
    class Matrix {
        public:
            friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const Matrix&);
    };
}

You need to enclose the function definition with a namespace block instead of just using namespace Math;.

Matrix.cpp

using namespace Math;
using namespace std;

namespace Math {
    ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, const Matrix& obj) {
        os << obj.XYZ << obj.ABC << '\n';
        return os;
    }                 
}