Overloading '<<' operator using Struct

[Euph11]

I am currently trying to overload the '<<' operator using a struct that holds a flight's number, origin, destination, and price. However, I am continuously getting this error. I have searched boards and tried multiple of the suggestions but I have had no luck. Any help is well appreciated!

My error is:
"error: expected unqualified-id before 'friend'"

Here's my header file:

#include <iostream>#include <string>


using namespace std;


#ifndef TYPE_H
#define TYPE_H


struct flightStruct
{
    int flightNum;                                                        //Flight Number
    string source;                                                        //Origin Flight
    string destination;                                                    //Destination Flight
    int price;                                                            //Price of Flight
    
    bool operator < (const flightStruct& rhs) const;                    //Overloaded operator for "less than"    
    bool operator == (const flightStruct& rhs) const;                    //Overloaded operator for "equal to"
    bool operator != (const flightStruct& rhs) const;                    //OVerloaded operator for "not equal to"
    friend ostream& operator << (ostream& os, const flightStruct& rhs);    //Overloaded operator for output
    
};
flightStruct flightRec;                                                    //flightRec is variable to represent flightStruct


#endif

And my overloaded '<<' definition:

friend flightStruct::ostream& operator << (ostream& os, const flightStruct& rhs)    //Overloaded operator for '<<'{                                                                                    //for struct output
    os << rhs.flightStruct.flightNum
       << rhs.flightStruct.source
       << rhs.flightStruct.destination
       << rhs.flightStruct.price;    
    return os;
    
}

[jimblumberg]

Since you're using a structure and all the variables are public you don't actually need the friendship. Just use a normal overload.

ostream& operator << (ostream& os, const flightStruct& rhs)    //Overloaded operator for '<<'{                                                                                    //for struct output
{
    os << rhs.flightNum
       << rhs.source
       << rhs.destination
       << rhs.price;
    return os;

}

Jim

[Euph11]

Thanks, Jim.
I found my errors and have corrected them but I am getting another error. Isn't this error similar to the original just worded differently? Why is this happening?

type.h:26: error: 'std:stream& flightStruct:perator<<(std:stream&, const flightStruct&)' must take exactly one argument
type.cpp:31: error: expected constructor, destructor, or type conversion before '&' token

[jimblumberg]

Post the code that is causing these errors. How did you correct your errors?

Jim

[Euph11]

I removed friend from both my header and implementation.

I kept 'flightStruct' scope resolution operator, but I am not sure if this is necessary. If I remove it from this definition and my other overloaded operator definitions, it just provides more errors.

I realized "rhs.flightStruct.flightNum" was not correctly accessing those members of flightStruct so I removed flightStruct. Those were the only changes I made based on the suggestions you made and it gave me the new error I posted previously.

flightStruct::ostream& operator << (ostream& os, const flightStruct& rhs)	//Overloaded operator for '<<'{																					//for struct output
	os << rhs.flightNum
	   << rhs.source
	   << rhs.destination
	   << rhs.price;	
	return os;
	
}

[jimblumberg]

You seem to be missing the opening brace. (Actually it seems to be embedded within the comment).

Did you place the declaration outside the class?


Jim

[laserlight]

Might be just some forum formatting problem, but this:

#include <iostream>#include <string>

should be:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

Furthermore, these header inclusions should come within the header inclusion guard to make it more likely that the compiler will avoid parsing the whole header file in the event it is included multiple times.

This is wrong:

using namespace std;

Using directives should not be at file scope in a header file. Remove it. Of course, once you do so, you would qualify the names from the std namespace, e.g., use std::string instead of string and std::ostream instead of ostream. Actually, this brings me to my next point, which is that this is unnecessary and even inaccurate here:

#include <iostream>

Rather, it should be:

#include <iosfwd>

then you would include in the source file:

#include <ostream>

<iostream> would be more for cases where you use say, std::cout.

Now, this is probably wrong:

flightStruct flightRec;

For starters, avoid global variables. If flightRec must be global, then you probably should have a naming convention to distinguish it, and it should not be defined in the header file like this. Rather, you would declare it extern:

extern flightStruct flightRec;

then define it in one source file.

[Euph11]

Thank you all for your help, I was able to resolve the problem through the help provided.