Overload == for string class

Howdy,

I'm sick of !strcmpi(). I want another function that can tell me if two strings match. In fact, I'd like to use an == operator on the strings to see if they match. I remember when I used to use borland C++ Builder, and had access to AnsiString. Those were the days!

I figured I'll do it myself. I'll overload the == operator for a string class, and return true or false depending on whether the strings matched. This is what I wrote:

Code:

---

class PaulString : public std::string
{
  public:
    bool operator==(PaulString rhs)
    {
      if (!strcmpi(this, rhs) )
        return true;
      else return false;
    }
}

---

That all seemed fine, except now it wont let me use something like:
PaulString Name = "Fred";
because theres no = operator for it. I thought that by having inherited everything from 'std::string' that I would have gotten the = operator.

If anyone can show me how this should be written (or if its possible), or show me how I can use AnsiString on MSVC6, I would be very thankful :)

Make a constructor...

I don't get this. Again ;(


If you use the string class, you already have access to the == operator, at least according to this C++ Reference.

If you want to compare a real string (class) with those zero terminated char arrays, you probably want to do something like

if (sMyString == string("Hello Girls!")) [...]

Not? ;)

I don't understand neither why he does not want to use the STL string instead of inheriting from it. But, the problem is that he needs a constructor, that's all.

Since strcmpi is used (I think) to perform case insensitive comparisons, it is true that you cannot use the built in == operator for that purpose.

But your solution of deriving a class from std::string is not a good one. First, the standard string class is not meant to be derived from - it has no virtual methods (and therefore no virtual destructor). I'm not saying you can't do it, but I think the intent of the creators of that class was to not have it be derived from.

I believe the preferred way to use std::string like that is to make it a private member and then create wrapper methods for each method you want to use. Personally, that seems like an awful lot of work, so I'd suggest simply using strcmpi (or even better _stricmp) or making a global function like this:

Code:

---

bool CaseInsensitiveCompare(const std::string& str1, const std::string& str2)
{
    return !strcmpi(str1.c_str(), str2.c_str());
}

---

[edit] My code was "bad" so I changed it.

Well, the string class' real purpose isn't to serve as a base. But the fact that it has no virtual methods isn't preventing it from being derived, just from being used in polymorphism stuffs.

[edit]Oh, and your code is bad, there's an operator to do the logical negation...

lol.. I feel so stupid... I never knew the std:string had an == operator. Thanks guys :D