What is operator overloading? Write different rules to overload operators. Also, explain Operator overloading with an example.
SOLUTION....
✨ Operator Overloading in C++
📌 Definition
Operator overloading is a feature in C++ that allows programmers to redefine the way operators work for user-defined types (like classes and structures).
In other words, we can give special meaning to operators (+, -, *, ==, etc.) when they are used with objects.
For example, instead of only adding integers, we can overload the + operator to add two objects of a Complex class.
📌 Rules for Operator Overloading
Only existing operators can be overloaded → You cannot create new operators (like
**or%%).The meaning of an operator cannot be changed for built-in types → e.g., you cannot redefine
3 + 5.At least one operand must be a user-defined type (class/struct).
Some operators cannot be overloaded, like:
::(scope resolution).(member access).*(member pointer access)sizeof?:(ternary operator)
Operators can be overloaded as member functions or friend functions.
Unary operators take no arguments when defined as member functions, but take one argument when defined as friend functions.
Binary operators take one argument when defined as member functions (the left operand is the calling object), but two arguments when defined as friend functions.
#include <iostream> using namespace std; class Complex { private: int real, imag; public: Complex(int r = 0, int i = 0) { real = r; imag = i; } // Operator overloading for + Complex operator + (const Complex &obj) { Complex temp; temp.real = real + obj.real; temp.imag = imag + obj.imag; return temp; } void display() { cout << real << " + " << imag << "i" << endl; } }; int main() { Complex c1(3, 4), c2(2, 5), c3; c3 = c1 + c2; // Uses overloaded + operator cout << "First Complex Number: "; c1.display(); cout << "Second Complex Number: "; c2.display(); cout << "Sum: "; c3.display(); return 0; }
OUTPUT
📌 Explanation
c1 + c2calls the overloaded functionoperator+().Inside the function, the real parts and imaginary parts are added separately.
A new object
c3is returned with the result.