Overloading based on return value/const?

[JohnGraham]

Hi there - I'm mainly a C+Java+Python+Lisp programmer, and though I've done a fair bit of C++ in the past I definitely don't consider myself an expert, so was wondering if someone with more detailed knowledge could help me out here.

I'm using Qt for a project, and found myself wanting to use operator[] on a QMap. I tootle along to the QMap online documentation to see if there's anything I need to be aware of and find the following two function signatures for operator[] (here):

T &     QMap::operator[] ( const Key & key )
const T QMap::operator[] ( const Key & key ) const

One returns a modifiable reference to the T indexed by key, the other returns a const copy, and I'd quite like to know which one I'm getting!

Now, I thought you could only overload methods based on their arguments - but clearly that's not what's distinguishing these two. I doubt it's based on return type, so I'm guessing it's somehow based on the const-"ness" of the object on which I'm using these methods? Am I close? What am I missing here?

[laserlight]

I'm guessing it's somehow based on the const-"ness" of the object on which I'm using these methods? Am I close?

You guessed correctly

[Elysia]

Essentially, if you have a QMap object which is const, you get the const T version, and otherwise the T& version. So there you go. Now you know which one you will get.

[JohnGraham]

Cheers for that - I'll think about `const' in a function declaration slightly different now. Useful to know.

[iMalc]

If you think of the 'this' pointer as just another (albeit hidden) argument, then you're really simply just overloading based on the arguments again.
I.e. it's taking QMap *this or const QMap *this