Thread: Trying to overload << in a templated Binary Tree

So that if I have a binary tree:

Code:

BinaryTree<int> *t = new BinaryTree<int>(5);

And there have been more numbers inserted I can just say:

Code:

cout << bn;

I have overloaded this operator before, but never with templates, so I am unsure where I should start.

Here is my BinaryTree class:

Code:

template <class T>
class BinaryTree{
	public:
		BinaryTree(T); //constructor
		BinaryTree<T>* insert(T, BinaryTree<T>*);
		void inorder(BinaryTree<T>*); //prints using inorder traversal
		int countNodes(BinaryTree<T>*);
	private:
		T data;
		BinaryTree* left;
		BinaryTree* right;
};

I believe the function should be something like this:

Code:

friend ostream& operator<< <>(ostream&, const BinaryTree<T>&)

I know you can't put << or >> overloaded functions as a member function, so does this not require a prototype, or just put it outside of the class and above the implementation?

Hope this makes sense, thanks.

*EDIT* Actually, I am supposed to make it a friend function, so I would put it in the class