Operator Overloading - Kamills-12/2143-OOP GitHub Wiki

Operator Overloading

Kade Miller

What Is It?

Operator overloading means giving custom meaning to operators (like +, -, ==, etc.) when they’re used with objects.

Normally, + adds numbers. But with operator overloading, you can make + work for something like two ComplexNumber objects or custom data types and define what “+” actually does in that context. Interesting.

Quick Example in C++

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Complex {
public:
    float real, imag;

    Complex(float r = 0, float i = 0) : real(r), imag(i) {}

    // OVERLOAD the '+' operator
    Complex operator + (const Complex& other) {
        return Complex(real + other.real, imag + other.imag);
    }

    void print() {
        cout << real << " + " << imag << "i" << endl;
    }
};

int main() {
    Complex c1(3, 2);
    Complex c2(1, 7);
    Complex result = c1 + c2;  // Calls our overloaded '+'
    result.print();  // Output: 4 + 9i
    return 0;
}
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