Something weird with operator overloading (C++)

Question

###MyClass.h###

    #ifndef _MyClass
    #define _MyClass
    #include <string>
    using namespace std;


    class MyClass
    {
    public:
        MyClass(const string name, const string text);
        void display(ostream & out) const;

        MyClass & operator = (const MyClass & m);
        int compare(const MyClass & right) const;

    private:
        string _name;
        string _text;
    };

    bool operator < (const MyClass & left, const MyClass & right);
    ostream & operator << (ostream & out, const MyClass & mc);
    #endif

###Node.h###

    #include <string>
    #include "MyClass.h"
    using namespace std;
    typedef MyClass * DataType; 

    class Node
    {
    private:
        DataType item; // data
        Node * lchild; // left child pointer
        Node * rchild; // right child pointer

    public:
        Node(DataType Item);
        DataType getItem() const;
        void setItem(const DataType  & data);
        Node* getLChild() const;
        void setLChild(Node * p);
        Node* getRChild() const;
        void setRChild(Node * p);
        virtual ~Node();
    };

###BST.h###

    #include "Node.h"
    using namespace std;

    class BST
    {
    private:
            Node * root; 
            bool Search(const DataType item, Node * r) const; 
            void Insert (DataType item, Node * ptr);
            void Destructor(const Node * r);

    public:
        BST();
        bool IsEmpty() const;
        void Insert(const DataType item);
        bool Search(const DataType item) const;
        virtual ~BST();
    };

###MyClass.cpp###

    #include <iostream>
    #include "MyClass.h"
    using namespace std;

    MyClass::MyClass(const string name, const string text)
    {
        _name = name;
        _text = text;
    }

    void MyClass::display(ostream & out) const
    {
        out << "Name: " << _name << endl;
        out << "Text: " << _text << endl;
    }

    MyClass & MyClass::operator = (const MyClass & m)  
    {  
        if (this == & m)
            return *this;

        _name = m._name;
        _text = m._text;

        return *this; 
    }

    int MyClass::compare(const MyClass & right) const
    {
        return _name.compare(right._name);
    }

    bool operator < (const MyClass & left, const MyClass & right)  
    {  
        return left.compare(right) > 0;
    }

    ostream & operator << (ostream & out, const MyClass & mc)
    {
        mc.display(out);
        return out;
    }

###Node.cpp###

    #include "Node.h"

    Node::Node(DataType Item):item(Item)
    {
        lchild = 0;
        rchild = 0;
    }

    DataType Node::getItem() const
    {
        DataType anItem = item; 
        return anItem;
    }

    void Node::setItem( const DataType & data)
    {
        item = data;
    }

    Node* Node::getLChild() const
    {
        Node * p = lchild;
        return p;
    }

    void Node::setLChild(Node * p)
    {
        lchild = p;
    }

    Node* Node::getRChild() const
    {
        Node * p = rchild;
        return p;
    }

    void Node::setRChild(Node * p)
    {
        rchild = p;
    }

    Node::~Node()
    {
    }

###BST.cpp###

    #include <iostream>
    #include "BST.h"
    using namespace std;

    bool BST::Search(const DataType item) const
    {
        return Search(item, root);
    }

    bool BST::Search(const DataType item, Node * r) const
    {
        if(r != 0)
        {
            if (item == r->getItem())
                return true;
            else
            {
                if (item < r->getItem())
                    return Search(item, r->getLChild());
                else
                    return Search(item, r->getRChild());
            }
        }
        else
            return false;
    }

    BST::BST()
    {
        root = 0;
    }

    bool BST::IsEmpty() const
    {
        return (root == 0);
    }

    void BST::Insert(const DataType item)
    {
        if(root == 0)
            root = new Node(item);
        else
            Insert(item, root);
    }

    void BST::Insert(DataType item, Node * ptr)
    {
        if (item < ptr->getItem())
        {
            if (ptr->getLChild() == 0)
                ptr->setLChild(new Node(item));
            else 
                Insert(item, ptr->getLChild());
        }
        else 
        {
            if (ptr->getRChild() == 0)
                ptr->setRChild(new Node(item));
            else 
                Insert(item, ptr->getRChild());
        }
    } 

    void BST::Destructor(const Node * r)
    {
        if(r!=0)
        {
            Destructor( r->getLChild());
            Destructor( r->getRChild());
            delete r;
        }
    }

    BST::~BST()
    {
        Destructor(root);
    }

###main.cpp###

    #include <iostream>
    #include "MyClass.h"
    #include "BST.h"
    using namespace std;

    void main()
    {
        MyClass * mc1 = new MyClass("Tree","This is a tree");
        MyClass * mc2 = new MyClass("Book","This is a book");
            MyClass * mc3 = new MyClass("Zoo","This is a zoo");

        BST * tree = new BST();
        tree->Insert(mc1);
        tree->Insert(mc2);
        tree->Insert(mc3);

        cout << boolalpha << ("Book" < "Tree") << endl;
        cout << (mc2 < mc1) << endl;

        cout << (tree->Search(new MyClass("Book",""))) << endl;
    }

Result is true false false

1. I don't know what's wrong with my operator overloading? (mc2 should less than mc1)
2. I'm not sure if this is correct for searching a "MyClass" node in a BST? and the result is "not found"....I traced it into "BST.cpp", and found that the problem also occurs at " if (item < r->getItem()) "

Can anyone help me or give me a hint....thank you so much!

Answer 1

Here you are just comparing pointers, ie memory addresses:

cout << (mc2 < mc1) << endl;

To compare the objects, you need to dereference the pointers:

cout << ((*mc2) < (*mc1)) << endl;

In your code snippet, there is no reason for mc1 , mc2 , etc. to be pointers, so you could avoid the problem by creating objects on the stack directly:

MyClass mc1("Tree","This is a tree");

and so on. I would even go further and say that you should only dynamically allocate objects with new if you really are sure you need to and have good reasons not to allocate automatically on the stack. And if you really must use dynamically allocated pointers, have a look at C++ smart pointers .