Making a user-defined class std::to_string(able)

Question

I know it seems too much Java or C#. However, is it possible/good/wise to make my own class valid as an input for the function std::to_string ? Example:

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Answer 1

You can't add new overloads of to_string into std namespace, but you can do it in your namespace:

namespace my {
   using std::to_string;

   std::string to_string(const my_class& o) {
     return o.give_me_a_string_of_you();
   }
}

Then you can use my::to_string for all types.

int main()
{
    my_class my_object;

    std::cout << my::to_string(my_object);
    std::cout << my::to_string(5);
}