Assignment operators
Assignment operators modify the value of the object.
Operator name | Syntax | Overloadable | Prototype examples (for class T) | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Inside class definition | Outside class definition | |||
simple assignment | a = b
|
Yes | T& T::operator =(const T2& b); | N/A |
addition assignment | a += b
|
Yes | T& T::operator +=(const T2& b); | T& operator +=(T& a, const T2& b); |
subtraction assignment | a -= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator -=(const T2& b); | T& operator -=(T& a, const T2& b); |
multiplication assignment | a *= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator *=(const T2& b); | T& operator *=(T& a, const T2& b); |
division assignment | a /= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator /=(const T2& b); | T& operator /=(T& a, const T2& b); |
modulo assignment | a %= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator %=(const T2& b); | T& operator %=(T& a, const T2& b); |
bitwise AND assignment | a &= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator &=(const T2& b); | T& operator &=(T& a, const T2& b); |
bitwise OR assignment | a |= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator |=(const T2& b); | T& operator |=(T& a, const T2& b); |
bitwise XOR assignment | a ^= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator ^=(const T2& b); | T& operator ^=(T& a, const T2& b); |
bitwise left shift assignment | a <<= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator <<=(const T2& b); | T& operator <<=(T& a, const T2& b); |
bitwise right shift assignment | a >>= b
|
Yes | T& T::operator >>=(const T2& b); | T& operator >>=(T& a, const T2& b); |
|
Explanation
copy assignment operator replaces the contents of the object a
with a copy of the contents of b
(b
is not modified). For class types, this is a special member function, described in copy assignment operator.
move assignment operator replaces the contents of the object |
(since C++11) |
For non-class types, copy and move assignment are indistinguishable and are referred to as direct assignment.
compound assignment operators replace the contents of the object a
with the result of a binary operation between the previous value of a
and the value of b
.
Builtin direct assignment
The direct assignment expressions have the form
lhs = rhs
|
(1) | ||||||||
lhs = {}
|
(2) | (since C++11) | |||||||
lhs = { rhs }
|
(3) | (since C++11) | |||||||
For the built-in operator, lhs may have any non-const scalar type and rhs must be implicitly convertible to the type of lhs.
The direct assignment operator expects a modifiable lvalue as its left operand and an rvalue expression or a braced-init-list (since C++11) as its right operand, and returns an lvalue identifying the left operand after modification.
For non-class types, the right operand is first implicitly converted to the cv-unqualified type of the left operand, and then its value is copied into the object identified by left operand.
When the left operand has reference type, the assignment operator modifies the referred-to object.
If the left and the right operands identify overlapping objects, the behavior is undefined (unless the overlap is exact and the type is the same)
If the right operand is a braced-init-list
|
(since C++11) |
Using an lvalue of volatile-qualified non-class type as left operand of built-in direct assignment operator is deprecated, unless the assignment expression appears in an unevaluated context or is a discarded-value expression. |
(since C++20) |
In overload resolution against user-defined operators, for every type T
, the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:
T*& operator=(T*&, T*); |
||
T*volatile & operator=(T*volatile &, T*); |
||
For every enumeration or pointer to member type T
, optionally volatile-qualified, the following function signature participates in overload resolution:
T& operator=(T&, T ); |
||
For every pair A1 and A2, where A1 is an arithmetic type (optionally volatile-qualified) and A2 is a promoted arithmetic type, the following function signature participates in overload resolution:
A1& operator=(A1&, A2); |
||
Example
#include <iostream> int main() { int n = 0; // not an assignment n = 1; // direct assignment std::cout << n << ' '; n = {}; // zero-initialization, then assignment std::cout << n << ' '; n = 'a'; // integral promotion, then assignment std::cout << n << ' '; n = {'b'}; // explicit cast, then assignment std::cout << n << ' '; n = 1.0; // floating-point conversion, then assignment std::cout << n << ' '; // n = {1.0}; // compiler error (narrowing conversion) int& r = n; // not an assignment int* p; r = 2; // assignment through reference std::cout << n << '\n'; p = &n; // direct assignment p = nullptr; // null-pointer conversion, then assignment struct {int a; std::string s;} obj; obj = {1, "abc"}; // assignment from a braced-init-list std::cout << obj.a << ':' << obj.s << '\n'; }
Output:
1 0 97 98 1 2 1:abc
Builtin compound assignment
The compound assignment expressions have the form
lhs op rhs | (1) | ||||||||
lhs op {} | (2) | (since C++11) | |||||||
lhs op {rhs} | (3) | (since C++11) | |||||||
op | - | one of *=, /= %=, += -=, <<=, >>=, &=, ^=, |= |
lhs | - | for the built-in operator, lhs may have any arithmetic type, except when op is += or -=, which also accept pointer types with the same restrictions as + and - |
rhs | - | for the built-in operator, rhs must be implicitly convertible to lhs |
The behavior of every builtin compound-assignment expression E1 op= E2 (where E1 is a modifiable lvalue expression and E2 is an rvalue expression or a braced-init-list (since C++11)) is exactly the same as the behavior of the expression E1 = E1 op E2, except that the expression E1
is evaluated only once and that it behaves as a single operation with respect to indeterminately-sequenced function calls (e.g. in f(a += b, g()), the += is either not started at all or is completed as seen from inside g()).
Using an lvalue of volatile-qualified non-class type as left operand of built-in compound assignment operator is deprecated. |
(since C++20) |
In overload resolution against user-defined operators, for every pair A1 and A2, where A1 is an arithmetic type (optionally volatile-qualified) and A2 is a promoted arithmetic type, the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:
A1& operator*=(A1&, A2); |
||
A1& operator/=(A1&, A2); |
||
A1& operator+=(A1&, A2); |
||
A1& operator-=(A1&, A2); |
||
For every pair I1 and I2, where I1 is an integral type (optionally volatile-qualified) and I2 is a promoted integral type, the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:
I1& operator%=(I1&, I2); |
||
I1& operator<<=(I1&, I2); |
||
I1& operator>>=(I1&, I2); |
||
I1& operator&=(I1&, I2); |
||
I1& operator^=(I1&, I2); |
||
I1& operator|=(I1&, I2); |
||
For every optionally cv-qualified object type T
, the following function signatures participate in overload resolution:
T*& operator+=(T*&, std::ptrdiff_t); |
||
T*& operator-=(T*&, std::ptrdiff_t); |
||
T*volatile & operator+=(T*volatile &, std::ptrdiff_t); |
||
T*volatile & operator-=(T*volatile &, std::ptrdiff_t); |
||
Example
This section is incomplete Reason: no example |
See also
Common operators | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
assignment | increment decrement |
arithmetic | logical | comparison | member access |
other |
a = b |
++a |
+a |
!a |
a == b |
a[b] |
a(...) |
Special operators | ||||||
static_cast converts one type to another related type |