title: Move assignment operator
text: # Move assignment operator
  
  In the C++ programming language, the move assignment operator = is used for transferring a temporary object to an existing object. The move assignment operator, like most C++ operators, can be overloaded. Like the copy assignment operator it is a special member function.
  
  If the move assignment operator is not explicitly defined, the compiler generates an implicit move assignment operator (C++11 and newer) provided that copy/move constructors, copy assignment operator or destructors have not been declared. The parameter of a move assignment operator is an rvalue reference (T&&) to type T, where T is the object that defines the move assignment operator. The move assignment operator is different than a move constructor because a move assignment operator is called on an existing object, while a move constructor is called on an object created by the operation. Thereafter, the other object's data is no longer valid.
  
  ## Overloading move assignment operator
  
  To overload the move assignment operator, the signature of the function must be:
  
  To successfully overload the move assignment operator, the following conditions must be met:
  
  * Check if the object calling the operator is not calling the operator on itself.
  * The current object's data is de-allocated.
  * The object that is being moved from must have its data marked as nullptr (or something to signify the move)
  * The operator must return a reference to "*this".
  
  Consider the following move assignment operator for a simple string class:
  
  