Why friend function is preferred to member function for operator<<
- by skydoor
When you are going to print an object, a friend operator<< is used. Can we use member function for operator<< ?
class A {
public:
void operator<<(ostream& i) { i<<"Member function";}
friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& i, A& a) { i<<"operator<<"; return i;}
};
int main () {
A a;
A b;
A c;
cout<<a<<b<<c<<endl;
a<<cout;
return 0;
}
One point is that friend function enable us to use it like this
cout<<a<<b<<c
What other reasons?
