Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design

6.5. Overloadable Operators

The C++ compiler parses expressions into operands and operators, as shown in Table 6.9.

With the exception of the ternary conditional operator (?:), all C++ operators work with either one operand (unary) or two operands (binary).

Table 6.9. Operator formats in C++

Expression Format	Operator Type	Examples
left_operand operator right_operand	Binary	a + b, a > b
left_operand operator	Unary (Postfix)	a++, a--, a->
operator right_operand	Unary (Prefix)	++a, --a, *a
operand1 ? operand2 : operand3	Ternary	a > b ? a : b

Table 6.10 lists the unary operators that you may overload.

Table 6.10. Unary operator overloading

Operator	Examples	Operator	Examples
+	+a	~	~a
-	-a	!	!a
*	*a	++	a++, ++a
&	&a	--	a--, --a
->	a->

Table 6.11 ...