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To test and display the result of some functions of my library, I am creating a set of handy functions. I have an execute function that looks like : template <typename R, typename I> std::string execute( const std::string& func_name, R(*func_ptr)( const I& ), const I& func_input ); It calls the function, and display the results and arguments in a formatted string that I can send to std::cout . The problem is that some of my functions do not return convertible-to-string results. I thought I could simply overload the global ::operator std::string with something like: template <typename T> operator std::string( const std::vector<T>& v ); But GCC complains: error: 'operator std::string(const std::vector<T, std::allocator<_CharT> >&)' must be a nonstatic member function Well, the problem of course is that I cannot add member operators to std::vector , and even for my classes, I don't want to pollute them with "for testing" conversion operators. I guess that I can add a layer of indirection and use a function instead of a conversion operator, but that would not be the more aesthetic solution. I could also overload ::operator << for std::ostream and use a std::ostringstream , but that also is not the cleanest solution. I wondered if the global conversion operator is really not overloadable, and if so, why.

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