C# Keywords Tutorial Part 59: operator

C# is a potent object-oriented programming language that provides developers with a wealth of capabilities and resources. The “operator” keyword is one such feature that enables programmers to build unique operators for their own types. We’ll examine the “operator” keyword in C# and look at some code samples to show how to use it in this blog article.

In C#, the “operator” keyword enables programmers to construct unique operators for unique types. Standard types like integers and floating-point numbers can be utilized with the built-in operators that C# by default offers. Developers can define their own operators for unique types using the “operator” keyword, though.

To define an operator, we use the “operator” keyword followed by the type of operator we want to define. For example, to define the addition operator for a custom type called “MyType”, we would use the following syntax:

public static MyType operator +(MyType a, MyType b)
{
? ? // Implementation here
}        

In the example above, we’re defining the “+” operator for the “MyType” class. The operator takes two parameters of type “MyType” and returns a new instance of “MyType”.

Let’s look at a more concrete example. Suppose we have a custom type called “Fraction” that represents a fraction with a numerator and denominator. We can define the “+” operator for this type as follows:

public class Fraction
{
? ? private int numerator;
? ? private int denominator;


? ? public Fraction(int numerator, int denominator)
? ? {
? ? ? ? this.numerator = numerator;
? ? ? ? this.denominator = denominator;
? ? }


? ? public static Fraction operator +(Fraction a, Fraction b)
? ? {
? ? ? ? int num = (a.numerator * b.denominator) + (b.numerator * a.denominator);
? ? ? ? int denom = a.denominator * b.denominator;
? ? ? ? return new Fraction(num, denom);
? ? }
}        

In this example, we’ve defined the “+” operator for the “Fraction” class. The operator takes two parameters of type “Fraction” and returns a new instance of “Fraction” that represents the sum of the two fractions. We’ve implemented the addition operation using the standard formula for adding fractions.

We can now use the “+” operator to add instances of the “Fraction” class together:

Fraction a = new Fraction(1, 2);
Fraction b = new Fraction(3, 4);
Fraction c = a + b;        

In this example, we’re creating two instances of the “Fraction” class, “a” and “b”, with values of 1/2 and 3/4 respectively. We’re then adding them together using the “+” operator and storing the result in a new instance of “Fraction” called “c”. The result of the addition is 5/4.

In addition to the “+” operator, there are several other operators that can be defined using the “operator” keyword, including “-“, “*”, “/”, “%”, “>”, “<“, “>=”, “<=”, “==”, “!=” and more.