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14.7. Increment and Decrement OperatorsThe increment (++) and decrement (--) operators are most often implemented for classes, such as iterators, that provide pointer like behavior on the elements of a sequence. As an example, we might define a class that points to an array and provides checked access to elements in that array. Ideally, our checked-pointer class could be used on arrays of any type, which we'll learn how to do in Chapter 16 when we cover class templates. For now, our class will handle arrays of ints:
/*
* smart pointer: Checks access to elements throws an out_of_range
* exception if attempt to access a nonexistent element
* users allocate and free the array
*/
class CheckedPtr {
public:
// no default constructor; CheckedPtrs must be bound to an object
CheckedPtr(int *b, int *e): beg(b), end(e), curr(b) { }
// dereference and increment operations
private:
int* beg; // pointer to beginning of the array
int* end; // one past the end of the array
int* curr; // current position within the array
};
Like ScreenPtr, this class has no default constructor. We must supply pointers to an array when we create a CheckedPtr. A CheckedPtr has three data members: beg, which points to the first element in the array; end, which points one past the end of the array; and curr, which points to the array element to which this CheckedPtr object currently refers. The constructor takes two pointers: one pointing to the beginning of the array and the other one past the end of the array. The constructor initializes beg and end from these pointers and initializes curr to point to the first element. Defining the Increment/Decrement Operators
Before we can define the overloaded increment and decrement operators for CheckedPtr, we must think about one more thing. For the built-in types, there are both prefix and postfix versions of the increment and decrement operators. Not surprisingly, we can define both the prefix and postfix instances of these operators for our own classes as well. We'll look at the prefix versions first and then implement the postfix ones. Defining Prefix Increment/Decrement OperatorsThe declarations for the prefix operators look as one might expect:
class CheckedPtr {
public:
CheckedPtr& operator++(); // prefix operators
CheckedPtr& operator--();
// other members as before
};
This increment operator ensures that the user can't increment past the end of the array by checking curr against end. We throw an out_of_range exception if the increment would move curr past end; otherwise, we increment curr and return a reference to the object:
// prefix: return reference to incremented/decremented object
CheckedPtr& CheckedPtr::operator++()
{
if (curr == end)
throw out_of_range
("increment past the end of CheckedPtr");
++curr; // advance current state
return *this;
}
The decrement operator behaves similarly, except that it decrements curr and checks whether the decrement would move curr past beg:
CheckedPtr& CheckedPtr::operator--()
{
if (curr == beg)
throw out_of_range
("decrement past the beginning of CheckedPtr");
--curr; // move current state back one element
return *this;
}
Differentiating Prefix and Postfix OperatorsThere is one problem with defining both the prefix and postfix operators: They each take the same number and type of parameters. Normal overloading cannot distinguish between whether the operator we're defining is the prefix version or the postfix. To solve this problem, the postfix operator functions take an extra (unused) parameter of type int. When we use the postfix operator, the compiler supplies 0 as the argument for this parameter. Although our postfix function could use this extra parameter, it usually should not. That parameter is not needed for the work normally performed by a postfix operator. Its sole purpose is to distinguish the definition of the postfix function from the prefix version. Defining the Postfix OperatorsWe can now add the postfix operators to CheckedPtr:
class CheckedPtr {
public:
// increment and decrement
CheckedPtr operator++(int); // postfix operators
CheckedPtr operator--(int);
// other members as before
};
The postfix operators might be implemented as follows:
// postfix: increment/decrement object but return unchanged value
CheckedPtr CheckedPtr::operator++(int)
{
// no check needed here, the call to prefix increment will do the check
CheckedPtr ret(*this); // save current value
++*this; // advance one element, checking the increment
return ret; // return saved state
}
CheckedPtr CheckedPtr::operator--(int)
{
// no check needed here, the call to prefix decrement will do the check
CheckedPtr ret(*this); // save current value
--*this; // move backward one element and check
return ret; // return saved state
}
The postfix versions are a bit more involved than the prefix operators. They have to remember the current state of the object before incrementing the object. These operators define a local CheckedPtr, which is initialized as a copy of *this that is, ret is a copy of the current state of this object. Having kept a copy of the current state, the operator calls its own prefix operator to do the increment or decrement, respectively:
++*this
calls the CheckedPtr prefix increment operator on this object. That operator checks that the increment is safe and either increments curr or throws an exception. Assuming no exception was thrown, the postfix function completes by returning the stored copy in ret. Thus, after the return, the object itself has been advanced, but the value returned reflects the original, unincremented value. Because these operators are implemented by calling the prefix versions, there is no need to check that the curr is in range. That check, and the tHRow if necessary, is done inside the corresponding prefix operator.
Calling the Postfix Operators ExplicitlyAs we saw on page 509, we can explicitly call an overloaded operator rather than using it as an operator in an expression. If we want to call the postfix version using a function call, then we must pass a value for the integer argument:
CheckedPtr parr(ia, ia + size); // iapoints to an array of ints
parr.operator++(0); // call postfix operator++
parr.operator++(); // call prefix operator++
The value passed usually is ignored but is necessary to alert the compiler that the postfix version is desired.
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