Overload conversion operator from outside class...

I wan't to convert an std::string to a std::wstring. To make things easier, I want to overload the conversion operator to make it more simplified but I don't want to encapsulate in my own class. Here's sort of how I'd imagine it to be implemented:

Code:

operator std::wstring( std::string a )
{
	std::wstring b;

	// conversion code here

	return b;
}

...so then I can do something like this:

Code:

std::string Text( "This is text." );
std::wstring WideText = Text;

Obviously, my attempt failed. But is this even possible?

Thanks.

Have you considered a named free function? Implicit is not always good.

Code:

std::string Text( "This is text." );
std::wstring WideText = widen(Text);

Do you mean like this?:

std::wstring Convert( std::string )

If so, I something like this right now, though it can get a bit messy when you start using it a fair bit. I was just looking into an alternative.

The cast operator can't be overloaded as a free function (thank god!).

I don't understand why things would get messy. You get to read code that tells you what is going on, rather than having things going on invisibly with types where you absolutely won't suspect anything.

Yes, I see your point. Thanks for your help.