Operator Overloading

Definition

Allows built-in operators like +,-,*,==, and others to work with objects. It involves redefining the behavior of operators.

Explanation

A good example would be a function that only needs the plus sign to add fractions. Instead of calling fraction.add(3/4, 2/3) you would just write 3/4 + 2/3.

Basic Code Example

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class Complex {
public:
    int real, imag;
    
    Complex(int r = 0, int i = 0) : real(r), imag(i) {}
    
    // Overload the + operator
    Complex operator + (const Complex &obj) {
        Complex result;
        result.real = real + obj.real;
        result.imag = imag + obj.imag;
        return result;
    }

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

int main() {
    Complex c1(3, 4);
    Complex c2(1, 2);
    Complex c3 = c1 + c2;  // Using overloaded +
    c3.display();
    return 0;
}

Image

Additional Resources

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/operator-overloading-cpp/ https://www.programiz.com/cpp-programming/operator-overloading