Operator [] Overloading

Hello codeguru members,

I'm implementing an class to manipulate mathematical matrices and I want it to have an interface as close as mathematical notation as possible.
So here it is my question:
can I overload some kind of operator[][] ?
I would like to access elements like this:

matrix A(3,3);
cout << A[0][1];

Is this possible?
An solution could be an friend operator[] function that retuns another class, like the matrix_line, and then overloading [] again, this time returning the element, right? But i find this solution deselegant and unclear. Any ideas?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by souza.vss

can I overload some kind of operator[][] ?

---

No.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by souza.vss

An solution could be an friend operator[] function that retuns another class, like the matrix_line, and then overloading [] again, this time returning the element, right? But i find this solution deselegant and unclear. Any ideas?

---

If you don't want to overload operator[] to return a proxy object for which operator[] is overloaded then overload operator() to accept two arguments.

If you make operator[] return a pointer, than the second [] will work as it always does on pointers. However, this gives up the possibility of bounds-checking the second access.

Also, you should note that several well-respected libraries already provide a mathematical matrix class. For instance, Boost.uBLAS and Eigen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by souza.vss

matrix A(3,3);
cout << A[0][1];

---

I think it would be better to use a template class, and aim for syntax like:

matrix<3,3> a;
cout << a(0,1);

template <typename T>
class Row
{
public:
const T& operator []( int i);
//..........
};


template <typename T>
class <Martix>
{
public:
const Row<T>& operator []( int i);
//..........
};