Function and Operator Overloading in C++

Function Overloading

• A programming technique that allows creating multiple functions with the same name but different parameter lists.
• Compiler can differentiate between overloaded functions based on the number of parameters and their data types.
• Use cases: Simplifying code by using the same function name to perform different tasks.

Operator Overloading

• Allows extending the definition of standard operators to work with custom data types.
• Example: Applying operators like +, -, *, / to a user-defined class called Rational, which represents rational numbers.
• Issues to consider:
  • Choosing which operators to overload for a given class (e.g., ==, !=, >, >=, <, <=, +, -, *, /).
  • Determining whether operators should be const methods or friend functions.
  • Implementing operators that need to be defined twice (e.g., =).

Memory Management and Operator Overloading

• Example of potential problems in using the new and delete operators with custom classes:
  • Incorrectly deleting a pointer that is not pointing to dynamically allocated memory can cause memory leaks or program crashes.
• Example:
  • In the code K = new Pile;, K is a pointer variable. This line allocates memory for a new Pile object and stores the address of this memory into K.
  • The line delete K; deallocates the memory originally pointed to by K.
  • The line K = 0; simply sets the pointer variable K to a null pointer, meaning it does not point to any memory location.

The Pair Class

• Pair represents an ordered pair of floating-point numbers.
• It has a data element of two float variables.
• The class can potentially utilize default copy constructor, destructor, and assignment operator.

Equality Operator (==) for the Pair Class

• Overloading the == operator helps us compare two Pair objects.
• Returns true if both Pair objects have the same elements in the same order.

The Bundle Class

• Has attributes Height, List (a dynamically allocated array of integers), and Size to represent the size of the array.

Implement the Assignment Operator for Bundle

• The assignment operator should handle the situation where the object being assigned to has an existing List that needs to be deallocated.

Implement the Destructor for Bundle

• The destructor will be called when a Bundle object goes out of scope or is explicitly deleted.
• It should properly release the dynamically allocated memory stored in the List attribute.

Implement the Copy Constructor for Bundle

• The copy constructor is responsible for creating a new Bundle object that is a copy of an existing Bundle object.
• It should allocate new memory for the List attribute of the new Bundle object and then copy the elements from the original object's List.

Implement the Output (Insertion) Operator << for Bundle

• The insertion operator function is typically overloaded to enable easy output of a Bundle object to a stream (like cout).
• This involves defining how the data members (e.g., Height, List, Size) of a Bundle object should be formatted when sent to an output stream.
• It might involve outputting the Height and then iterating through the List to output its elements.

Important Notes

• The Bundle class exemplifies the potential complexities of using dynamic memory allocation.
• Properly managing memory, including allocating,deallocating, and copying data, to avoid memory leaks and program errors is crucial.