Overloading << for my class

[Inquirer]

I'm making a general "logger" class, and for this i am using the c++ ostream class, because of the ease of << use. I will need to overload the << operator, so that people outside the class can use "logger_obj << "Hello" << endl;". I was reading about this, and the site i am reading says that something has to be a "friend" to be able to use this operator when it is overloaded. What does this mean, and why is it, or is ut untrue?

Example given:

__friend ostream& operator << ( ostream& s, ED& d);_
_
__ostream& operator << (ostream& s, ED& d ) {_
___s << d.feet << "\'=" << d.inches << '\"';_
___return s;_
__}

~Inquirer

[WebmasterMattD]

What you are reading about is for using the following

  ostream << logger_obj;

This does not sound what you are wanting to do. What you are wanting to do is overload the specific operators inside of your class. This would be done as follows. ( as a function in your class definition).

  logger_obj &operator << ( string theText );

This will allow for the following code to be used by others in the following fashion.

  logger_obj << "Hello" << std::endl;

Hope that this helps you with your problem.

Later,