diff --git a/include/rexy/string_base.hpp b/include/rexy/string_base.hpp
index de514f3..b2bfbe3 100644
--- a/include/rexy/string_base.hpp
+++ b/include/rexy/string_base.hpp
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <cstring> //strlen
 #include <climits> //CHAR_BIT
 #include <iterator> //reverse_iterator
+#include <iostream> //ostream
 
 #include "steal.hpp"
 #include "utility.hpp"
@@ -496,6 +497,15 @@ namespace{
 		return rexy::string_view(str, len);
 	}
 
+	template<class Char, class Alloc>
+	std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const rexy::basic_string<Char,Alloc>& str){
+		return os << str.c_str();
+	}
+	template<class Char>
+	std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, const rexy::string_view<Char>& str){
+		return os << str.c_str();
+	}
+
 }
 
 #ifdef REXY_BINARY_BASE_HPP