operator<< cannot output std::endl -- Fix?

Posted by dehmann on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by dehmann
Published on 2010-04-10T03:23:53Z Indexed on 2010/04/10 3:33 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 339

The following code gives an error when it's supposed to output just std::endl:

#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>

struct MyStream {
  std::ostream* out_;
  MyStream(std::ostream* out) : out_(out) {}
  std::ostream& operator<<(const std::string& s) {
    (*out_) << s;
    return *out_;
  }
};

template<class OutputStream>
struct Foo {
  OutputStream* out_;
  Foo(OutputStream* out) : out_(out) {}
  void test() {
    (*out_) << "OK" << std::endl;
    (*out_) << std::endl; // ERROR     
  }
};

int main(int argc, char** argv){
  MyStream out(&std::cout);
  Foo<MyStream> foo(&out);
  foo.test();
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

The error is:

stream1.cpp:19: error: no match for 'operator<<' in '*((Foo<MyStream>*)this)->Foo<MyStream>::out_ << std::endl'
stream1.cpp:7: note: candidates are: std::ostream& MyStream::operator<<(const std::string&)

So it can output a string (see line above the error), but not just the std::endl, presumably because std::endl is not a string, but the operator<< definition asks for a string.

Templating the operator<< didn't help:

  template<class T>
  std::ostream& operator<<(const T& s) { ... }

How can I make the code work? Thanks!

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