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Alexander Girardet
8,119 PointsWhy do we need Magic Methods in classes
Hi sorry if this question might be a bit vague, while I understand how to use Magic Methods in a class, I don't understand why we need to use them. Why is it that outside of a class we can use +,*,- without having to use magic methods, but inside a class, we have to set up multiple methods? Thank you
1 Answer
Steven Parker
229,786 PointsPrimitive types already have method implementations for the standard math operations. But you need to implement your own methods for custom objects because the system doesn't know offhand what the operations should do to the objects.
For example, if you had objects that represented cars, what would it mean to add (+) one car to another? Should it return a tuple with both cars in it? Or should it return a single car object that has properties from both originals? You get to make these decisions when you implement the methods.