'friend' not permitted on data declarations

[Lv0f92yv]

I see this error when trying to overload the << operator in one of my classes.

Code:

#include <iostream>
class Node {

public:
	friend ostream& operator << (ostream& output, const Node& n);

	int _val;

	//methods
	Node();
	Node( int );
	~Node();
	int getVal();
	void setVal( int );
};

...

ostream& operator<<(ostream& output, const Node& n) {
    output << "NODE::"<< n._val << "\n";
    return output;  // for multiple << operators.
}

I am using MSVC++2010 Express.

I have googled on this, and saw something about misplaced includes causing this, but I am not sure how to resolve this or what role misplaced includes would play.

Thanks for any help...

[Bazzy]

try with std::ostream

[Lv0f92yv]

Ugh I am so terrible...

Thanks...

Desh