10.7. Overloading the Unary Prefix and Postfix ++ and -- Operators

The prefix and postfix versions of the increment and decrement operators can all be overloaded. We’ll see how the compiler distinguishes between the prefix version and the postfix version of an increment or decrement operator.

To overload the prefix and postfix increment operators, each overloaded operator function must have a distinct signature, so that the compiler will be able to determine which version of ++ is intended. The prefix versions are overloaded exactly as any other prefix unary operator would be. Everything stated in this section for overloading prefix and postfix increment operators applies to overloading predecrement and postdecrement operators. In the next section, we examine a Date class with overloaded prefix and postfix increment operators.