I have this: typedef string domanin_name; And then, I try to overload the operator< in this way: bool operator<(const domain_name & left, const domain_name & right){ int pos_label_left = left.find_last_of('.'); int pos_label_right = right.find_last_of('.'); string label_left = left.substr(pos_label_left); string label_right = right.substr(pos_label_right); int last_pos_label_left=0, last_pos_label_right=0; while(pos_label_left!=string::npos && pos_label_right!=string::npos){ if(label_left<label_right) return true; else if(label_left>label_right) return false; else{ last_pos_label_left = pos_label_left; last_pos_label_right = pos_label_right; pos_label_left = left.find_last_of('.', last_pos_label_left); pos_label_right = right.find_last_of('.', last_pos_label_left); label_left = left.substr(pos_label_left, last_pos_label_left); label_right = right.substr(pos_label_right, last_pos_label_right); } } } I know it's a strange way to overload the operator <, but I have to do it this way. It should do what I want. That's not the point. The problem is that it enter in an infinite loop right in this line: if(label_left<label_right) return true; It seems like it's trying to use this overloading function itself to do the comparision, but label_left is a string, not a domain name! Any suggestion?