C# Academy · Lesson

Overloading Arithmetic Operators

Define +, -, * for your own types.

Why Overload Arithmetic Operators?

Operator overloading lets your own types use familiar symbols like +, -, and *. For value-like types such as vectors, money, or complex numbers, this makes code read like math instead of method calls.

The operator + Syntax

An overloaded operator is declared as a public static method whose name is operator followed by the symbol. At least one parameter must be the containing type.

using System;

public struct Vector2
{
    public int X, Y;
    public Vector2(int x, int y) { X = x; Y = y; }

    public static Vector2 operator +(Vector2 a, Vector2 b)
        => new Vector2(a.X + b.X, a.Y + b.Y);

    public override string ToString() => "(" + X + ", " + Y + ")";
}

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var sum = new Vector2(1, 2) + new Vector2(3, 4);
        Console.WriteLine(sum);
    }
}

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