defining objects in a non-member operator?

ok, i have two matrices a and b. they are objects from a class. so i write a non-member operator + to add them. the new matrix is called c. if i declare the matrix c in the operator then the body of the program doesn't recognize c, and if i declare it in the body, the operator doesn't recognize it. any ideas?

It's not very clear from you post what's happening. Are you returning c from the operator+ function? Is the operator+ function a friend of your matrix class? If it's just adding two objects why isn't it a member function?

If this doesn't help post some code.

i made the operator non-member because my prof said to.

here is the operator:

MySquareMatrix operator +(const MySquareMatrix &A, const MySquareMatrix &B)
{
double sum;
int order = A.GetOrder();
MySquareMatrix C(order); //if i declare C here, the program body (below) doesn't recognize it when i try to print it out or something

for (int i = 0; i < order; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < order; j++)
{
sum = A.ReturnVal(i, j) + B.ReturnVal(i, j);
C.PlaceValue(i, j, sum); // puts the result of a and b in c
}
}
return C;



...

program body...

.
.
.
A+B; // this compiles ok

for (int i = 0; i < order; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < order; j++)
{
cout << C.ReturnVal(i, j); // this doesn't compile right "Undefined symbol C"
}
}


i don't know where to declare C (operator or body?)

hope this helps.

thanks a lot

Quote:

---

A+B; // this compiles ok

---

This is a function that returns a value. If you want to use the value returned you'll have to assign it to something.

If you had two integers int a and int b, just doing

a+b

will not allow you to use the sum of these anywhere.

ok...i guess that makes sense, but i feel like i don't know what i should do next. what would i set a + b equal to?

A MySquareMatrix instance -

MySquareMatrix C = A+B;