Doubt in Operator overloaded function

#1

In the operator overloaded function we returning *f i.e f is a pointer which stores the address of T type data and we are returning it by dereferencing it hence its return type should be of T, but in the Function definition we have written that T& should be returned but we are returning T.

#2 
T* search (string key){
		int idx=hashfun(key);
		Node<T>*temp=table[idx];
		while(temp){
			if(temp->key==key)return &temp->value;
			temp=temp->next;
		}
		return NULL;
	}

T& operator [](string key){
		T* f=search(key);

		if(f==NULL){
			insert(key,0);
			f=search(key);
		}
		return *f;
	}

first take a look at search function
here we return address
this address is stored in f inside operator overloading function
hence f contains the address

f is pointer of type T
and it stores the address of a bucket (type T)
when we return *f means return value of f which is nothing but address
hence return type is T& (address of T)

i hope this helps

#3

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