my string class

I am trying to write my own string class but I have trouble writing:
operator<<
operator>>
How do I access ostream and istream?
Please help?

Declare them as friend functions of your class. The function prototypes might be like this:

Code:

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std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream&, const T&);
std::istream& operator>>(std::istream&, T&);

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for some class T for which these are friend functions.

thanx laserlight but it didnt really work, maybe you can explain it to me a little more

The custom inserter and extractor can be as simple as this:

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <cstring>

class String {
  char *mem;
  int size;
public:
  String ( const char *p );
  ~String();

  friend std::istream& operator>> ( std::istream& is, String& s );
  friend std::ostream& operator<< ( std::ostream& os, const String& s );
};

String::String ( const char *p )
{
  size = strlen ( p );
  mem = new char[size + 1];
  strcpy ( mem, p );
}

String::~String() { delete [] mem; }

std::istream& operator>> ( std::istream& is, String& s )
{
  return is.getline ( s.mem, s.size );
}

std::ostream& operator<< ( std::ostream& os, const String& s )
{
  return os << s.mem;
}

int main()
{
  String s = "My cool string";

  std::cout << s << "\nEnter a string: ";
  std::cin >> s;
  std::cout << s << '\n';
}

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