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Pretty odd question but is it possible to overload the meaning of certain bracket types e.g. <, >, [, ] and | in Python. For instance if I have some object instances MyObj1 and MyObj2 could I design something whereby <MyObj1 | MyObj2 > was understood as either a method call in MyObj1?

I think it probably can't/shouldn't be done but I thought I'd ask!

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  • Uhhhhh... Why? EDIT: Also, no it's not possible unless you fork CPython and write the code yourself to support it. Commented Jan 23, 2015 at 13:24
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    Although you can overload operators, you cannot change their arity. Both < and > are binary operators that require two operands, even if you overload them. Commented Jan 23, 2015 at 13:26
  • Yeah I thought it might have been a bit far out but by way of a quick explaination I wanted to write something to compute Bra-Kets (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bra%E2%80%93ket_notation) conveniently and in a syntactically similar fashion Commented Jan 23, 2015 at 13:32

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No. The only operator overloading that is allowed in Python is changing the runtime semantics of pre-existing operators. The syntax <MyObj1 | MyObj2 > would involve either making < and > into unary operators (one prefix, one postfix) or making them both into a single "circumfix" operator. As they are currently both binary infix operators, such a change cannot be done.

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