How to return a value by class name itself in C++?

Question

I'm working on a wrapper class for char[] in c++. Something like a String . Now I want to get a value from the object name. For example:

void main() {
    String str;
    str = "Hello";
    cout << str;
}

so the str return a character array , and cout can print it on the screen. How can I achieve this in my class? (By the way, I know there is already a string class. This is an exercise for Data Structures lesson)

Answer 1

This is probably what you mean:

std::ostream & operator << (std::ostream & os, const String & s)
{
    return os << s.get_char_pointer();
}

Of course you will need to change get_char_pointer to whatever works for your String .

Answer 2

You are looking in the wrong direction. You do not need str to return a character array (which of course it can't anyway). While technically you can define a conversion operator on your String class, it is not recommended, since it can have an unintended effect.

Instead, overload operator<< , giving your class as it's second argument, and perform streaming there.