Function Call (C++)

The latest version of this topic can be found at Function Call (C++).

The function-call operator, invoked using parentheses, is a binary operator.

Syntax

  
primary-expression ( expression-list )  

Remarks

In this context, primary-expression is the first operand, and expression-list, a possibly empty list of arguments, is the second operand. The function-call operator is used for operations that require a number of parameters. This works because expression-list is a list instead of a single operand. The function-call operator must be a nonstatic member function.

The function-call operator, when overloaded, does not modify how functions are called; rather, it modifies how the operator is to be interpreted when applied to objects of a given class type. For example, the following code would usually be meaningless:

Point pt;  
pt( 3, 2 );  

Given an appropriate overloaded function-call operator, however, this syntax can be used to offset the x coordinate 3 units and the y coordinate 2 units. The following code shows such a definition:

// function_call.cpp  
class Point  
{  
public:  
    Point() { _x = _y = 0; }  
    Point &operator()( int dx, int dy )  
        { _x += dx; _y += dy; return *this; }  
private:  
    int _x, _y;  
};  
  
int main()  
{  
   Point pt;  
   pt( 3, 2 );  
}  

Note that the function-call operator is applied to the name of an object, not the name of a function.

You can also overload the function call operator using a pointer to a function (rather than the function itself).

typedef void(*ptf)();  
void func()  
{  
}  
struct S  
{  
   operator ptf()  
   {  
      return func;  
   }  
};  
  
int main()  
{  
   S s;  
   s();//operates as s.operator ptf()()  
}  

See Also

Operator Overloading