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Python Operator Overloading

Updated on Jan 07, 2020

You have already seen you can use + operator for adding numbers and at the same time to concatenate strings. It is possible because + operator is overloaded by both int class and str class. The operators are actually methods defined in respective classes. Defining methods for operators is known as operator overloading. For e.g: To use + operator with custom objects  you need to define a method called __add__.

Let's take an example to understand better

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import math

class Circle:

    def __init__(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius

    def setRadius(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius

    def getRadius(self):
        return self.__radius

    def area(self):
        return math.pi * self.__radius ** 2

    def __add__(self, another_circle):
        return Circle( self.__radius + another_circle.__radius )

c1 = Circle(4)
print(c1.getRadius())

c2 = Circle(5)
print(c2.getRadius())

c3 = c1 + c2 # This became possible because we have overloaded + operator by adding a    method named __add__
print(c3.getRadius())

Expected Output:

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9

import math
 
class Circle:
 
    def __init__(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius
 
    def setRadius(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius
 
    def getRadius(self):
        return self.__radius
 
    def area(self):
        return math.pi * self.__radius ** 2
 
    def __add__(self, another_circle):
        return Circle( self.__radius + another_circle.__radius )
 
c1 = Circle(4)
print(c1.getRadius())
 
c2 = Circle(5)
print(c2.getRadius())
 
c3 = c1 + c2 # This became possible because we have overloaded + operator by adding a    method named __add__
print(c3.getRadius())

In the above example we have added __add__()  method which allows use to use the + operator to add two circle objects. Inside the __add__()  method we are creating a new object and returning it to the caller.

Python has many other special methods like __add__(), see the list below.

Operator Function   Method Description
+  __add__(self, other)  Addition
*  __mul__(self, other)  Multiplication
- __sub__(self, other)  Subtraction
% __mod__(self, other)  Remainder
/ __truediv__(self, other)  Division
< __lt__(self, other)  Less than
<= __le__(self, other) , Less than or equal to
==   __eq__(self, other) , Equal to
!=   __ne__(self, other) , Not equal to
>  __gt__(self, other)  , Greater than

>=,  __ge__(self, other) , Greater than or equal to [index] ,  __getitem__(self, index) , Index operator in ,  __contains__(self, value) , Check membership len , __len__(self) ,  The number of elements str , __str__(self) ,  The string representation

Program below is using some of the above mentioned functions to overload operators.

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import math

class Circle:

    def __init__(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius

    def setRadius(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius

    def getRadius(self):
        return self.__radius

    def area(self):
        return math.pi * self.__radius ** 2

    def __add__(self, another_circle):
        return Circle( self.__radius + another_circle.__radius )

    def __gt__(self, another_circle):
        return self.__radius > another_circle.__radius

    def __lt__(self, another_circle):
        return self.__radius < another_circle.__radius

    def __str__(self):
        return "Circle with radius " + str(self.__radius)

c1 = Circle(4)
print(c1.getRadius())

c2 = Circle(5)
print(c2.getRadius())

c3 = c1 + c2
print(c3.getRadius())

print( c3 > c2) # Became possible because we have added __gt__ method

print( c1 < c2) # Became possible because we have added __lt__ method

print(c3) # Became possible because we have added __str__ method

Expected Output:

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True
True
Circle with radius 9

import math
 
class Circle:
 
    def __init__(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius
 
    def setRadius(self, radius):
        self.__radius = radius
 
    def getRadius(self):
        return self.__radius
 
    def area(self):
        return math.pi * self.__radius ** 2
 
    def __add__(self, another_circle):
        return Circle( self.__radius + another_circle.__radius )
 
    def __gt__(self, another_circle):
        return self.__radius > another_circle.__radius
 
    def __lt__(self, another_circle):
        return self.__radius < another_circle.__radius
 
    def __str__(self):
        return "Circle with radius " + str(self.__radius)
 
c1 = Circle(4)
print(c1.getRadius())
 
c2 = Circle(5)
print(c2.getRadius())
 
c3 = c1 + c2
print(c3.getRadius())
 
print( c3 > c2) # Became possible because we have added __gt__ method
 
print( c1 < c2) # Became possible because we have added __lt__ method
 
print(c3) # Became possible because we have added __str__ method

Next lesson is inheritance and polymorphism.

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