The Assignment Operator

The assignment operator assigns to an existing object the value of another existing object of the same type.
Prototype
```
    Type& Type::operator=(const Type&);
```
The assignment operator must be a member function.
The assignment operator is used in the following situation.
- In an assignment statement, to assign the value of an existing object to another existing object.

Form

    Type& Type::operator=(const Type& value)
    {
        if (this != &value)
        {
        //	Clear out old value...

        //	Assign new value...
        }
        return *this;
    }

The Automatic Assignment Operator
- Uses the data members' assignment operators to assign values to them from the other object.

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This page was last modified on Oct 26, 2000

URL: http://people.hsc.edu/faculty-staff/robbk/Coms262/Lectures/AssignmentOperator.html