CS-112

Object Oriented Programming

(3+1)
Prerequisites:
Programming Fundamentals

SYED MUHAMMAD RAFI

LECTURER, DEPARTMENT OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY,
ZIAUDDIN UNIVERSITY
Operator Overloading
Lec-7
Operator Overloading
• The process of adding additional meanings of operator is known as operator
overloading.
• It enables an operator to perform different operations depending on the type
of operands.
• The basic arithmetic operators such as +,-,*,/ normally works with basic types
such as int , float etc.
• The application of these operators with basic types are defined in the language.
• However an error occur if these operators are used with user defined objects.
Overloading an operator
• An operator can be overloaded by declaring a special member function in the
class.
• The member function uses the keyword operator with the symbol of operator
to be overloaded.
Syntax
The syntax of overloading an operator is as follows:
return_type operator op()
{
Function body;
}
Where.,
return_type It indicates the type of value returned by the function.
Operator It is the keyword that indicates that the member function is
used to overload an operator.
Op It is the symbol of operator to be overloaded.

Example
Void operator ++()
{
function body ;
}
Overloading Unary Operators
• A type of operator that works with single operand is called unary
operand.
• The unary operators are overloaded to increase their capabilities.
• The unary operator that can be overloaded in C++are as follows:

+ - * ! ~ &
++ - - () -> new delete
Overloading ++ Operator
• The increment operator ++ is a unary operator.
• It works with single operand .
• It increase the value of operand by 1.
• It only works with numerical values by default.
• It can be overloaded to enable it to increase the values of data members of an
object in same way.
 Write a program that overloads increment operator to work with user-defined objects
#include <iostream>
void operator ++()
using namespace std;
{
n=n+1;
class Count
}
{ };
private:
int n;
public: int main()
Count() {
{ Count obj;
n=0; obj.show();
} ++ obj;
void show() obj.show();
{
}
cout<<"n="<<n<<endl;
}
How Above Program Work
• The above program overloads the increment operator ++ to work with the
objects of all user-defined class count.
• It increases the value of data member n by 1.
• The user can use the same format to increase the value of object as used with
integers.
• The above overloading only works in prefix notation.
Operator Overloading with Returned Value
• The increment operator can be used in assignment statement to to store the
incremented value in another variable.
• Suppose a and b are two integers. The following statement will increment
the value of a by 1 and then assign the new value to b:
b= ++a;

• The above functionality can be assigned to the operator by returning the

new value from member function.
• The returned value can be stored in another object of same type on the left
side of the assignment operator.
 Write a program that overloads increment operator to work with user-defined objects.
The overloaded function should return an object after incrementing the data member.

#include <iostream> count operator ++()

{
using namespace std; count temp;
class count n=n+1;
temp.n=n;
{
return temp;
private: }
int n; };
public:
count() int main()
{
{
count x,y;
n=0;
x.show();
} y.show();
void show() y=++x;
{ x.show();
cout<<"n="<<n<<endl; y.show();
return 0;
}
}
How Above Program Work
• The above program overloads increment operator.
• The member function increments the value of data member n.
• It stores the increment value in temporary object and returns the object.
• It allows the user to use the increment operator in an assignment operator.
Overloading Postfix Increment Operator
• The increment operator works in two notations i.e prefix and postfix
notation.
• The operator has to be overloaded separately for both notations.
 Write a program that overloads postfix increment operator to work with user defined objects.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std; count operator ++(int)
class count
{ {
private:
count temp;
int n;
n=n+1;
public:
count()
temp.n=n;
{ return temp;
n=0; }
} };
void show() int main()
{ {
cout<<"n ="<<n<<endl; count x;
}
x.show();
count operator ++()
++x; //postfix
{
x++; //prefix
count temp;
n=n+1; x.show();
temp.n=n; return 0;
return temp; }
How Above Program Work
• The above program overloads increments operator for both prefix and
postfix notation .
• The keyword int in following statement indicates that operator is overloaded
for postfix:
Count operator ++(int)
• The use of int in parenthesis is not an integer parameter.
• It is simply a flag to compiler that indicates that the operator is overloaded
for postfix notation.
Overloading Binary Operator
• A type of operator that works with two operands is called binary operator.
• The binary operators are overloaded to increase their capabilities.
 Write a program that overloads postfix increment operator to work with user defined objects.
#include <iostream> Add operator +(Add p)
using namespace std; {
class Add Add temp;
{ temp.a =p.a +a;
private: temp.b =p.b -b;
int a,b; return temp;
public:
}
Add()
};
{
int main()
a=b=0;
} {

void in() Add x,y,z;

{ x.in();
cout<<"Enter a:"; y.in();
cin>>a; z=x+y;
cout<<"Enter b:"; x.show();
cin>>b; y.show();
}
z.show();
void show()
return 0;
{
}
cout<<"a ="<<a<<endl;
cout<<"b ="<<b<<endl;
}
How Above Program Work
• The above program overloads the binary operator.
• When the binary object is used with objects, the left operand acts as calling
object and right operand acts as parameter passed to the function.
• z=x+y;
• In the above statement, x is the calling object and y is passed as parameter.
• The member function adds the value of calling object and parameter object.
• It stores the the result in a temporary object and the return the temporary
object.
• The return object is copied to the right side of assignment operator in main()
End of lecture