Operator Overloading Debate

The cluster centers on discussions about operator overloading in programming languages, debating its usefulness for mathematical operations and custom types versus risks of abuse, confusion, and unmaintainable code, with examples from C++, Java, Haskell, Scala, and others.

📉 Falling 0.3x Programming Languages
3,707
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#3823
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

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Keywords

OO RHS PHP e.g JS FAQ overloading.h python.org OMG JavaScript operator overloading operators overload define int foo bar java types python

Sample Comments

nixos Nov 17, 2016 View on HN

And in Java, and in any language with operator overloading

Tainnor Sep 25, 2024 View on HN

that's just operator overloading and it exists in many statically typed languages too

KAdot Mar 22, 2016 View on HN

That's how the operator overloading abuse looks like.

piva00 Jul 23, 2025 View on HN

No operator overload, I think it was a wise decision to not allow it after seeing the bizarro world of Ruby, Scala, C++, and others.

sedatk Oct 3, 2019 View on HN

They could also overload operators for terseness.

metafunctor Aug 13, 2021 View on HN

Operator overloading, what a great idea?

Tichy Jun 17, 2007 View on HN

Not all OO languages allow operator overloading.

anamexis Jan 16, 2018 View on HN

This is possible in many languages, but not in JavaScript, because it does not support operator overloading.

gergely Jul 30, 2012 View on HN

Maybe I'm missing something but what about operator overloading?

coldpie Jul 11, 2023 View on HN

Operator overloading is an anti-feature and every language with it, would be better without it. Fight me.