Overloading the Postfix Increment Operator

Overloading the postfix increment operator presents a challenge, because the compiler must be able to distinguish between the signatures of the overloaded prefix and postfix increment operator functions. The convention that has been adopted is that, when the compiler sees the postincrementing expression d1++, it generates the member-function call

The prototype for this operator member function is

The argument 0 is strictly a dummy value that enables the compiler to distinguish between the prefix and postfix increment operator functions. The same syntax is used to differentiate between the prefix and postfix decrement operator functions.

If the postfix increment is implemented as a non-member function, then, when the compiler sees the expression d1++, the compiler generates the function call

The prototype for this function would be

Once again, the 0 argument is used by the compiler to distinguish between the prefix and postfix increment operators implemented as non-member functions. Note that the postfix increment operator returns Date objects by value, whereas the prefix increment operator returns Date objects by reference—the postfix increment operator typically returns a temporary object that contains the original value of the object before the increment occurred. C++ treats such objects as rvalues, which cannot be used on the left side of an assignment. The prefix increment operator returns the actual incremented object with its new value. Such an object can be used as an lvalue in a continuing expression.