Binary Operators with Facilitators

A facilitator is a member function that is invoked by a non-member operator.
For a binary operator, we may define a facilitator as a member function that carries out the operation.
Define the operator to be a non-member function.
- The facilitator has one parameter.
- The operator has two parameters.
- The operator invokes the facilitator.
Advantages
- The left operand need not be an object of the same class.
- The expressions a + b and b + a are equivalent.
Disadvantages
- Requires an additional function call.

This page was last modified on Feb 1, 2001

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