Can we define operators in MATLAB?

I started learning OOP in MATLAB and I saw that we can either use the colon(A,B) syntax or simply A:B. This kind of method works for other operators and we may even redefine how they work.

My question is: can we somehow achieve that MATLAB recognises some other symbols we define? For example, I want to use ° for dyadic product in my class and if I typed A°B, dyadic(A,B) would be executed on objects A and B.

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

As you have seen, you can define the behavior of existing operators, like + or * to operate as you would like them to behave for objects of your class. I use that capability heavily in several of my toolboxes.

But no, you cannot define a completely new character and have MATLAB recognize that as an operator. So you cannot define the operator $ or ° to do something special for your class. This may change one day - one can never rule out language design changes.

[Zoltán Csáti]

Well, both answers were totally useful for me. Is there a chance to accept both of them? I just cannot decide between them.

[John D'Errico]

Just flip a coin. :) Better yet, use MATLAB!

accept = {'Sean', 'John'};
accept{1 + round(rand(1))}

Drat. I tried it a few times, but it can't make up its mind!

[Sean de Wolski]

You can give them both a vote at least!

[Zoltán Csáti]

Well, John won it using the advice above. :)

[Sean de Wolski]

Dang!

You should've used:

accept{1+floor(rand)}

[Sean de Wolski]

Or set the random number generator to the year, that would at least be fair...

rng(2014)
1+round(rand)

Answer 2

[Matt J]

There are fake things you can do. I don't really recommend them, but just for fun, I create a function below that makes the '$' symbol act like the '+' symbol,

        >> A=1;B=2;

        >> Q C=A$B

        >> ans=C

          ans =

               3

    function Q(varargin)

        cmd=[varargin{:} ';'];
        cmd=strrep(cmd,'$','+');

        evalin('caller',cmd)

[Sean de Wolski]

Ughh that hurts...

[Matt J]

Yeah, just an illustration of some of the horrible things you can do.

Answer 3

[Sean de Wolski]

No, you can only overload the current operators. I think this is pretty close to the full list

le,lt,gt,ge,eq,ne,colon,end,times,mtimes,ldivide
rdivide,mrdivide,mldivide,power,mpower,subsref,subsindex,subsasgn