Is it possible to make a C function for a data type that is accessible using a dot operator?-CodePudding

I want to make a function associated to a data type say int that can be accessed using the dot operator such that:

int x = 9;
std::string s = x.ToString();

I know how to do so with std::string and the likes but not the int data type. Is that possible?

CodePudding user response：

No, this is not possible. An int is a primitive type whereas a std::string is a class type that contains methods.

However, you could create your own struct/class in order to implement this functionality. The struct Int type has a constructor which takes in an integer and uses an initializer list :a(value) (introduced in C 11) to assign the internal integer with a given value.

#include <string>

struct Int
{
    int a;

    Int(int value)
        : a(value)
    {}

    std::string ToString() const { return std::to_string(a) };
};

Int a = 20;
std::string s = a.ToString();