Language

Operator Overloading

Source: 8-Class And Objects/8.7-OperatorOverloading.ipynb

Start here — no coding background needed

What you will learn

Teach operators like + what to do for your own types.

In simple words

Rare for beginners — skim now; revisit when building custom math types.

Group data and actions together — used in bigger apps; go slow, use analogies.

Easy example — try this first

Easy example — run this first. Change values and press Run again.

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Reference notes (from full bootcamp)

Optional — deeper detail for when you are ready

Operator Overloading

Operator overloading allows you to define the behavior of operators (+, -, *, etc.) for custom objects. You achieve this by overriding specific magic methods in your class.

Reference example

Output

Expected (from notebook):
'\n__add__(self, other): Adds two objects using the + operator.\n__sub__(self, other): Subtracts two objects using the - operator.\n__mul__(self, other): Multiplies two objects using the * operator.\n__truediv__(self, other): Divides two objects using the / operator.\n__eq__(self, other): Checks if two objects are equal using the == operator.\n__lt__(self, other): Checks if one object is less than another using the < operator.\n\n'

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Reference example

Output

Expected (from notebook):
Vector(6, 8)
Vector(-2, -2)
Vector(6, 9)

Runs in your browser via Pyodide — no server. First run may take a few seconds.

Reference example

### Overloading Operators for Complex Numbers

class ComplexNumber:
    def __init__(self, real, imag):
        self.real = real
        self.imag = imag

def __add__(self, other):
        return ComplexNumber(self.real + other.real, self.imag + other.imag)

def __sub__(self, other):
        return ComplexNumber(self.real - other.real, self.imag - other.imag)

def __mul__(self, other):
        real_part = self.real * other.real - self.imag * other.imag
        imag_part = self.real * other.imag + self.imag * other.real
        return ComplexNumber(real_part, imag_part)

def __truediv__(self, other):
        denominator = other.real**2 + other.imag**2
        real_part = (self.real * other.real + self.imag * other.imag) / denominator
        imag_part = (self.imag * other.real - self.real * other.imag) / denominator
        return ComplexNumber(real_part, imag_part)

def __eq__(self, other):
        return self.real == other.real and self.imag == other.imag

def __repr__(self):
        return f"{self.real} + {self.imag}i"

# Create objects of the ComplexNumber class
c1 = ComplexNumber(2, 3)
c2 = ComplexNumber(1, 4)

# Use overloaded operators
print(c1 + c2)  # Output: 3 + 7i
print(c1 - c2)  # Output: 1 - 1i
print(c1 * c2)  # Output: -10 + 11i
print(c1 / c2)  # Output: 0.8235294117647058 - 0.29411764705882354i
print(c1 == c2) # Output: False

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Practice test — try yourself

Write code, press Check. Wrong answer shows the correct code to copy & run.

You learned "Operator Overloading". Use print() to show: Done: Operator Overloading

Hint: Use one print() with the exact text.