Explain operator overloading with an example.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class Box {
public:
double getVolume(void) {
return length * breadth * height;
}
void setLength( double len ) {
length = len;
}
void setBreadth( double bre ) {
breadth = bre;
}
void setHeight( double hei ) {
height = hei;
}
// Overload + operator to add two Box objects.
Box operator+(const Box& b) {
Box box;
box.length = this->length + b.length;
box.breadth = this->breadth + b.breadth;
box.height = this->height + b.height;
return box;
}
private:
double length; // Length of a box
double breadth; // Breadth of a box
double height; // Height of a box
};
// Main function for the program
int main() {
Box Box1; // Declare Box1 of type Box
Box Box2; // Declare Box2 of type Box
Box Box3; // Declare Box3 of type Box
double volume = 0.0; // Store the volume of a box here
// box 1 specification
Box1.setLength(6.0);
Box1.setBreadth(7.0);
Box1.setHeight(5.0);
// box 2 specification
Box2.setLength(12.0);
Box2.setBreadth(13.0);
Box2.setHeight(10.0);
// volume of box 1
volume = Box1.getVolume();
cout << "Volume of Box1 : " << volume <<endl;
// volume of box 2
volume = Box2.getVolume();
cout << "Volume of Box2 : " << volume <<endl;
// Add two object as follows:
Box3 = Box1 + Box2;
// volume of box 3
volume = Box3.getVolume();
cout << "Volume of Box3 : " << volume <<endl;
return 0;
}
#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
class Complex {
private:
int real, imag;
public:
Complex(int r = 0, int i =0) {real = r; imag = i;}
// This is automatically called when '+' is used with
// between two Complex objects
Complex operator + (Complex const &obj) {
Complex res;
res.real = real + obj.real;
res.imag = imag + obj.imag;
return res;
}
void print() { cout << real << " + i" << imag << endl; }
};
int main()
{
Complex c1(10, 5), c2(2, 4);
Complex c3 = c1 + c2; // An example call to "operator+"
c3.print();
}
In C++, we can change the way operators work for user-defined types like objects and structures. This is known as operator overloading. For example,
Suppose we have created three objects c1, c2 and result from a class named Complex that represents complex numbers.
Since operator overloading allows us to change how operators work, we can redefine how the + operator works and use it to add the complex numbers of c1 and c2 by writing the following code:
result = c1 + c2;
instead of something like
result = c1.addNumbers(c2);
This makes our code intuitive and easy to understand.
Note: We cannot use operator overloading for fundamental data types like int, float, char and so on.
Syntax for C++ Operator Overloading
To overload an operator, we use a special operator function.
class className {
... .. ...
public
returnType operator symbol (arguments) {
... .. ...
}
... .. ...
};