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Aryan Kumar

Aryan Kumar

06-Aug-2023

Operator overloading in C++ is the ability to give new meaning to existing operators. This can be useful for making code more concise and readable, or for providing new functionality to user-defined types.

To overload an operator, you need to define a function with the same name as the operator, and the same number and types of arguments. The function body will contain the code that you want to execute when the operator is used.

For example, the following code overloads the + operator for the Point class:

C++

class Point {
public:
  int x;
  int y;

  Point(int x, int y) {
    this->x = x;
    this->y = y;
  }

  Point operator+(const Point& other) {
    return Point(this->x + other.x, this->y + other.y);
  }
};

int main() {
  Point p1(10, 20);
  Point p2(30, 40);

  Point p3 = p1 + p2;

  cout << p3.x << ", " << p3.y << endl; // 40, 60

  return 0;
}

In this code, the + operator is overloaded to add two Point objects together. The operator+() function takes two Point objects as arguments, and returns a new Point object that is the sum of the two original objects.

When the + operator is used in the main() function, the compiler will call the operator+() function instead of the built-in + operator. This will cause the code to add the two Point objects together and return the result.

Here are some of the rules for operator overloading in C++:

  • Only built-in operators can be overloaded.
  • The arity of the operator cannot be changed.
  • The precedence of the operator remains the same.
  • The overloaded operator cannot hold the default parameters except function call operator “()”.

Operator overloading can be a powerful tool for making your code more concise and readable. However, it is important to use it carefully, as it can also make your code less readable and more difficult to debug.

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