Why is it necessary to return a reference to the current object when overloading the assignment operator?

To enable chaining assignment, for example: a = b = c;.

class MyClass {
public:
    int value;

    MyClass& operator=(const MyClass& other) {
        if (this != &other) { // Self-assignment check
            value = other.value;
        }
        return *this; // Return a reference to the current object
    }
};

Without returning a reference to the current object *this, the assignment operator would return a temporary object or value, making chained assignment impossible or undefined. Returning by reference avoids copying and allows the assignment operation to continue with the result of the previous one: (a = b) = c; (although this syntax is used less frequently).