Overloading stream << operator for pointer / shared pointer and other types

Question

Is it possible to overload the << operator for a custom class in a way that all of following will work:

CustomClass customClass;
std::shared_ptr<CustomClass> sharedPointer(customClass);

os << customClass;
os << sharedPointer;

Or that at least following works:

os << sharedPointer.get();

By default, using the common technique to overload the operator, only following 2 options will work:

os << customClass;
os << *sharedPointer.get();

Edit

"working" here means, that in all cases the custom classes << operator overload is executed and that I get the result of os << customClass in all cases instead of pointer addresses in the case of the pointer classes

Example

Code:

os << customClass;
os << sharedPointer;
os << sharedPointer.get();
os << *sharedPointer.get();

Output:

Custom class text
00000244125655C0
00000244125655C0
Custom class text

Desired:

At second or third output should be "Custom class text" as well

Answer 1

that in all cases the custom classes << operator overload is executed and that I get the result of os << customClass in all cases instead of pointer addresses in the case of the pointer classes

Here's how I would do it:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <memory>

class MyClass {
    std::string s;

    friend std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const MyClass& c) {
        os << c.s;
        return os;
    }

public:
    MyClass(const std::string& s_) : s(s_) {}
};

template<typename T>
std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const std::shared_ptr<T>& pc) {
    os << pc.get() << " " << *pc;
    return os;
}    


int main() {
    std::shared_ptr<MyClass> pc = std::make_shared<MyClass>("Hello");
    std::cout << pc << std::endl;
}

Output

0x20f5c30 Hello

See a live example.