The general syntax to overload the stream extraction operator for a class is ____.
A) istream& operator(istream&, className&);
B) const istream& operator(istream&, className&);
C) friend operator(istream&, className&);
D) friend istream& operator(istream&, className&);

Question

The general syntax to overload the stream extraction operator >> for a class is ____.
A) istream& operator>>(istream&, className&);
B) const istream& operator>>(istream&, className&);
C) friend operator>>(istream&, className&);
D) friend istream& operator>>(istream&, className&);

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The best choice is D because to overload the stream extraction operator >> for a class, it is necessary to access the private member variables of the class, and hence the function must be declared as a friend function. Also, we need to return the istream type to allow chaining of the extraction operator. The const keyword is not required as the stream is modified during extraction.

The General Syntax to Overload the Stream Extraction Operator >>