What is overloading operators in Perl?

In Perl, operator overloading is a powerful feature that allows you to redefine how operators (like +, -, *, etc.) behave when applied to objects of a class. This means you can create custom behaviors for your objects that make them interact using familiar syntax, giving you the ability to express complex operations in a streamlined manner.

To use operator overloading in Perl, you typically include the overload module and define how operators will behave for your class. This can be particularly useful for mathematical operations or string manipulations on object instances.

Here's a simple example of operator overloading for a vector class that allows you to add two vectors using the + operator:


        use overload
            '+' => 'add',
            '""' => 'to_string';

        package Vector;

        sub new {
            my ($class, $x, $y) = @_;
            my $self = { x => $x, y => $y };
            bless $self, $class;
            return $self;
        }

        sub add {
            my ($self, $other) = @_;
            return Vector->new($self->{x} + $other->{x}, $self->{y} + $other->{y});
        }

        sub to_string {
            my ($self) = @_;
            return "($self->{x}, $self->{y})";
        }

        # Example usage
        my $vector1 = Vector->new(5, 10);
        my $vector2 = Vector->new(3, 4);
        my $result = $vector1 + $vector2; # Uses overloaded +
        print $result; # Outputs: (8, 14)

Perl operator overloading custom behavior classes vectors overload module

What is overloading operators in Perl?

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What is overloading operators in Perl?

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