Streaming objects on a socket

Question

Well this question is not specifically about sockets, but more a C++ question. However, I have a class which can send and receive data via a socket. I would like to send data with the stream syntax, so I create the << operator in my class:

virtual const BaseSocket& operator << (const std::string &oMessage);

Now in my code and I can use it and it works:

socket << "data";

The problem I'm facing now is that I can only put a single element per line and not use:

socket << "data1" << "data2";

I'm aware that I would have to overload the operator for other datatypes when I want to stream them as well, like int, float, etc. but I couldn't find out why I can not chain the variables.

• TheDarkKnight: Are you returning the "this" BaseSocket instance in the function?

Answer 1

you should remove the const from const BaseSocket&

BaseSocket& operator << (const std::string &oMessage);

const is what prevents you from chaining, because the operator << itself is a non-const, so it can't be called on a const variable which is returned from the previous operator call