Operator Overloading

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lee
  • Start date Start date
L

Lee

Does VB.NET support overloaded operators? For instance, if I create a
complex number class, Complex, can I do code like this?

Dim a As New Complex(1.2, 3.4)
Dim b As New Complex(5.6, 7.89)
b = b * 4
a = a + b

I'm not sure if Operator Overloading is an OOP (and thus maybe .NET)
feature, or a C++/C# language feature.
 
Lee said:
Does VB.NET support overloaded operators? For instance, if I create a
complex number class, Complex, can I do code like this?

Dim a As New Complex(1.2, 3.4)
Dim b As New Complex(5.6, 7.89)
b = b * 4
a = a + b

I'm not sure if Operator Overloading is an OOP (and thus maybe .NET)
feature, or a C++/C# language feature.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can overload like that if you have the function setup in the class
as such:

Public Class Complex
Public Sub New(Num1 as Integer, Num2 as Integer)
{Code here}
End Sub
End Class

This is based off your example, not sure where you're going, but this is how
you would overload the new sub.

HTH
Sueffel
 
* "Lee said:
Does VB.NET support overloaded operators? For instance, if I create a
complex number class, Complex, can I do code like this?

Dim a As New Complex(1.2, 3.4)
Dim b As New Complex(5.6, 7.89)
b = b * 4
a = a + b
Click to expand...

Currently it's not supported, but it will be supported in the next
version of Visual Basic (VS.NET 2004, Whidbey).
I'm not sure if Operator Overloading is an OOP (and thus maybe .NET)
feature, or a C++/C# language feature.
Click to expand...

It's syntactic sugar...

;-)
 
Does VB.NET support overloaded operators?
Click to expand...

Not in the current version. The next version (included with Whidbey --
early 2005) will support operator overloading.
 
Herfried K. Wagner said:
Currently it's not supported, but it will be supported in the next
version of Visual Basic (VS.NET 2004, Whidbey).


It's syntactic sugar...

;-)
Click to expand...

Ooops, I read that one wrong! LOL, I thought he was asking bout Function
Overloading. I's a big goof!

Sueffel
 
Lee,
I'm not, there is NO precedence in VB6 or VB.NET for keywords with
underscores. ;-) If anything I would expect two (or more) words.

However if the work was "spelled" out, would it be:
Operator Plus
Operator Add
Operator Addition

Remember "+" is the Addition Operator.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbls7/html/vblrfVBSpec11_5_1.asp


Further I would expect the underlying IL function will be op_Addition , as
that is the .NET convertion, per the "Common Language Infrastructure
Standard" installed in "\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
2003\SDK\v1.1\Tool Developers Guide\docs" on VS.NET 2003. Look in "Partition
I Architecture - 9.3 Operator Overloading".


IMHO it should be "Operator +" it is obvious you are overloading the +
operator.

Although using "Operator Left Shift" (as opposed to Operator <<) would force
developers to consider that << is not the "send to stream" operator! ;-)

Hope this helps
Jay
 
* "Lee said:
Great article! I'm just suprised to see the overloaded operator function
named using the actual symbols. VB has always boasted "english"
words/keywords. I'm supprised they're going with the C++ style "Operator
+(...)" instead of something like Operator_Plus(...).
Click to expand...

Mhm... In VB.NET, we type "1 + 1", not "1 Add 1" or something like
that... Using text replacements for the operators will be misleading.

;-)
 
Mhm... In VB.NET, we type "1 + 1", not "1 Add 1" or something like
that... Using text replacements for the operators will be misleading.
Click to expand...

I was right, one of my answers to you with that function as integer question
was if you was trying to build your own operater overloading funtions.

Bij the way for real Cobol programmers it is still hard to use the operater
characters

There is a statement
Compute C = B + A but that is often called not good programming.

In nice Cobol it is
Move A to C
Add B to C (IBM style)
Add A to B giving C (Burroughts style) there processor was really build in
that way.
(the hardware command was op,addr1,addr2,addr3)

Also for multiply, dividing, etc. That did go real fast (A total
calculation in almost one cycle). But the cycles where much slower than now,
so the performance is now much much higher.

Cor
 
Great article! I'm just suprised to see the overloaded operator function
named using the actual symbols. VB has always boasted "english"
words/keywords. I'm supprised they're going with the C++ style "Operator
+(...)" instead of something like Operator_Plus(...).
 
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