Hidden Features

Operator Overloading

Everything in Python is an object. Each object has some special internal methods which it uses to interact with other objects. Generally, these methods follow the __action__ naming convention. Collectively, this is termed as the Python Data Model (opens new window).

You can overload any of these methods. This is commonly used in operator overloading in Python. Below is an example of operator overloading using Python's data model. The Vector class creates a simple vector of two variables. We'll add appropriate support for mathematical operations of two vectors using operator overloading.

class Vector(object):
    def __init__(self, x, y):
        self.x = x
        self.y = y

    def __add__(self, v):
        # Addition with another vector.
        return Vector(self.x + v.x, self.y + v.y)

    def __sub__(self, v):
        # Subtraction with another vector.
        return Vector(self.x - v.x, self.y - v.y)

    def __mul__(self, s):
        # Multiplication with a scalar.
        return Vector(self.x * s, self.y * s)

    def __div__(self, s):
        # Division with a scalar.
        float_s = float(s)
        return Vector(self.x / float_s, self.y / float_s)

    def __floordiv__(self, s):
        # Division with a scalar (value floored).
        return Vector(self.x // s, self.y // s)

    def __repr__(self):
        # Print friendly representation of Vector class. Else, it would
        # show up like, <__main__.Vector instance at 0x01DDDDC8>.
        return '<Vector (%f, %f)>' % (self.x, self.y, )

a = Vector(3, 5)
b = Vector(2, 7)

print a + b # Output: <Vector (5.000000, 12.000000)>
print b - a # Output: <Vector (-1.000000, 2.000000)>
print b * 1.3 # Output: <Vector (2.600000, 9.100000)>
print a // 17 # Output: <Vector (0.000000, 0.000000)>
print a / 17 # Output: <Vector (0.176471, 0.294118)>

The above example demonstrates overloading of basic numeric operators. A comprehensive list can be found here (opens new window).