operator overloading and non-member functions c++

Question

I have written a class for complex numbers in which I have overloaded the operator + and everything works fine, however I need to implement this as a non-member function and I am not sure how, or why there is a benefit of doing so.

Here is my code .h:

class Complex
{
private:
    double a;
    double b;

public:
    Complex();
    Complex(double aGiven);
    Complex(double aGiven, double bGiven);

    double aGetValue();
    double bGetValue();    
    double operator[](bool getB);

    Complex add(Complex &secondRational);
    Complex operator+(Complex &secondRational);
}

.cpp:

Complex Complex::add(Complex &secondRational)
{
    double c = secondRational.aGetValue();
    double d = secondRational.bGetValue();
    double anew = a+c;
    double bnew = b+d;
    return Complex(anew,bnew);
}

Complex Complex::operator+(Complex &secondRational)
{
    return add(secondRational);
}

Any help on how to make these as non-member functions will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Here is the addition operator outside of the class:

Complex operator+(const Complex& lhs, const Complex& rhs) {
  //implement the math to add the two
  return Complex(lhs.aGetValue() + rhs.aGetValue(),
                 lhs.bGetValue() + rhs.bGetValue());
}

Of course you will need to declare aGetValue() and bGetValue() as const:

double aGetValue() const {return a;}
double bGetValue() const {return b;}

Answer 2

The usual approach to arithmetic operations is to define the reflexive versions of the operators as members and the pure versions as non-members, implementing them with the reflexive versions:

class complex {
public:
    const complex& operator+=(const complex& rhs) {
        real += rhs.real;
        imag += rhs.imag;
        return *this;
    }
};

complex operator+(const complex& lhs, const complex& rhs) {
    complex res(lhs);
    res += rhs;
    return res;
}

Answer 3

How is explained above by pippin1289.

Why is explained below:

Imagine one need to use object of class as

Complex c3 = 5 + c1;// for c3 object c1's real part (a) added with 5

As C++ preserve order of operand. Compiler resolve above addition call as 5.operator+ (const Complex & other);// which is not possible Hence, overload it via free function.

Your class is exposing necessary information via public interface such as aGetValue() and bGetValue. Hence, this free overloaded + operator function need not be friend of class.

Additionally, Prefer non friend non member function over member function as it helps reduce degree of encapsulation. This is explained here ==> http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/how-non-member-functions-improve-encapsu/184401197?pgno=1

Answer 4

You can declare a friend to your Complex class

class Complex {

// blah....

    friend Complex operator+(Complex const& a, Complex const & b);
};

The overloaded operator can access the private members of Complex.