complex-numbers: operator overloading

[SaschaMann]

The complex-number exercise testsuite and example use methods add, mul etc. instead of the operators __add__, __mul__. Using the latter, one could do ComplexNumber(1, 2) + ComplexNumber(3, 4) instead of ComplexNumber(1, 2).add(ComplexNumber(3, 4)) which might be a more natural/pythonic way to write these. Perhaps changing it to the operator version would make this exercise a bit more interesting and applicable to "real life" use cases?

[ilya-khadykin]

@SaschaMann, good point, thanks! I totally agreed.

It* will showcase use of Python`s magic methods an operator overloading (Java for example does not have such luxury) in action. Perhaps it would be a good idea to include a hint explaining what it is in the exercise as well

[cmccandless]

__abs__() can also be overridden.

[susg]

Hi, how do I override abs and conjugate? And in order to override exp it should renamed to __pow__ and div to __truediv__ if using python 3.3.

[cmccandless]

@susg Hi! If you are interested in working on this, please create a pull request to claim the issue.

There is no operator to override for conjugate, so that should remain a traditional method.

exp is actually different from __pow__. See Wolfram Alpha's explanation of Complex Exponentiation for more information.

For more info on overloading operators, see below:

• Python 2

• Python 3

@m-a-ge susg raised a good point; in Python 2, the operator for / is __div__, while in Python 3 it is __truediv__. Perhaps the template solution should contain both, with a note in the differences between the two? Having both will still interpret in either 2 or 3, so this would simply be covering all bases.

[cmccandless]

As this is no longer pending resolution of #1057, I am removing the pinned label.