What is the problem with operator+ overload?

Question

I'm getting a problem and I don't have any ideas about what is wrong. I need to overload operator + for my class so I can merge two and more lists.

The error

Xcode keeps saying:

Invalid operands to binary expression ('List *' and 'List *')

My code

template <typename Type> class List {
public:
    Type data;
    List *next;
    void set_head(Type d) {
        data = d;
        next = nullptr;
    }
    void int_print() {
        cout << data << endl;
    }
};

template <typename Type>
List<Type>* operator+ (List<Type> *head1, List<Type> *head2) {
    List<Type> *tmp = head1, *headf = nullptr, *tmpf = nullptr;
    tmpf = list_create_head(tmp, tmp->data);
    headf = tmpf;
    tmp = tmp->next;
    while (tmp != nullptr) {
        tmpf = list_create_continue(tmpf, tmp->data);
        tmp = tmp->next;
    }
    tmp = head2;
    while (tmp != nullptr) {
        tmpf = list_create_continue(tmpf, tmp->data);
        tmp = tmp->next;
    }
    return headf;
}

//problem occurs here:
else if ((c == 8) * (bonus != nullptr)) {
            List<int> *mem = nullptr;
            mem = head + bonus; //Here!
            free(bonus);
            cout << "Result of merging: " << endl;
            tmp = mem;
            while (tmp != nullptr) {
                tmp->int_print();
                tmp = tmp->next;
            }
            free(mem);
        }

Totally unrelated: You may find your time spent with C++ to be a lot easier if you learn [the Rule of Three (and friends)](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/rule_of_three) and [use `new` (and pointers) a lot less often](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6500313/why-should-c-programmers-minimize-use-of-new). — user4581301, Mar 28 '19 at 22:04
For terminology, what this code calls a `List` is more commonly called a `Node`. A `List` would have code that manages `Node` objects to maintain the list. — Pete Becker, Mar 28 '19 at 22:33

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 28 '19 at 22:05

According to [over.oper]/6:

An operator function shall either be a non-static member function or be a non-member function that has at least one parameter whose type is a class, a reference to a class, an enumeration, or a reference to an enumeration.

Therefore, your operator+ is illegal, but the compiler has not diagnosed this because the template was not instantiated (the standard allows but does not require the compiler to issue a diagnostic in such a case). When you attempted to add the two List<int> pointers, according to [over.match.oper]/1:

If no operand of an operator in an expression has a type that is a class or an enumeration, the operator is assumed to be a built-in operator ...

Therefore, the compiler did not instantiate your operator+ template, but instead simply issued an error because the built-in + operator cannot operate on two pointers.

You do not need to overload any operators to merge lists. You can simply write an ordinary function to do that instead.

Thank you for your support. It's ok, I have a function to merge them but overloading is a part of my homework and I have to somehow make this happen. Any ideas? — Lev Marder, Mar 29 '19 at 08:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '19 at 22:44

You can't overload operator+ to take 2 pointers as input, or to return a pointer as output. It needs to take object references as input, and return a new object by value as output (which requires your class to support the Rule of 3/5, which it currently does not). Your current class design is not well-suited for supporting concatenation operations.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 29 '19 at 08:24

I find the solution by changing operator+ operands from List* to simply List:

template <typename Type>
List<Type>* operator+ (List<Type> head1, List<Type> head2) {
    List<Type> *tmp = &head1, *headf = nullptr, *tmpf = nullptr;
    tmpf = list_create_head(tmp, tmp->data);
    headf = tmpf;
    tmp = tmp->next;
    while (tmp != nullptr) {
        tmpf = list_create_continue(tmpf, tmp->data);
        tmp = tmp->next;
    }
    tmp = &head2;
    while (tmp != nullptr) {
        tmpf = list_create_continue(tmpf, tmp->data);
        tmp = tmp->next;
    }
    return headf;
}

The problem is that it is not convenient to write code like this, but whatever:

mem = *head + *bonus;

Thank everyone for your support!

What is the problem with operator+ overload?

3 Answers3