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6.6 Overloading of Operators

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An operator is a function whose designator is an operator_symbol. Operators, like other functions, may be overloaded.

Name Resolution Rules

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Each use of a unary or binary operator is equivalent to a function_call with function_prefix being the corresponding operator_symbol, and with (respectively) one or two positional actual parameters being the operand(s) of the operator (in order).

Legality Rules

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The subprogram_specification of a unary or binary operator shall have one or two parameters, respectively. A generic function instantiation whose designator is an operator_symbol is only allowed if the specification of the generic function has the corresponding number of parameters.

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Default_expressions are not allowed for the parameters of an operator (whether the operator is declared with an explicit subprogram_specification or by a generic_instantiation).

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An explicit declaration of "/=" shall not have a result type of the predefined type Boolean.

Static Semantics

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A declaration of "=" whose result type is Boolean implicitly declares a declaration of "/=" that gives the complementary result.

     NOTES

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 The operators "+" and "−−" are both unary and binary operators, and hence may be overloaded with both one− and two−parameter functions.
Examples

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Examples of user−defined operators:

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     function "+" (Left, Right Matrix) return Matrix;
     function "+" (Left, Right Vector) return Vector;
     
     −−  assuming that A, B, and are of the type Vector
     −−  the following two statements are equivalent:
     
     A := C;
     A := "+"(B, C);