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I could use some help understanding the following in C++, particularly the difference between an operator and a function:
operator+() a function or an operator?sizeof() in C++)
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5 Answers. Show activity on this post. Loosely, an operator (acting on a function space) takes functions to functions (e.g., f(x) to −if′(x)). On the other hand, a functional takes functions to numbers (think about a certain integral, or the derivative evaluated at a certain point).
Solution. The basic difference between operator function as a friend function and as member function is that a friend function will have only one argument for unary operators and only one for binary operators.
An operator is a symbol like +, -, += and so forth (see 13.5). They don't carry a meaning. During semantic analysis, the meaning of an operator is determined.
A function is a constructor, destructor, conversion function (that looks like operator type()) or operator function (function template specialization and instantiation can yield these in turn).
An operator function is something that implements an operator (see 13.5). An example is operator+. These are functions in all respects, and the only difference to "usual" functions is that they may be called implicitly and they have a funny name.
Some operators have a built-in meaning, that can be changed by the programmer. One refers to the built-in meaning of an operator simply by saying built-in operator (see 5/3). However, if such an operator is applied on operands for which a built-in meaning is defined, changing that meaning is only allowed for a few cases (these are assignment, address-of and the comma operator, see 13.5/6).
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