Operator overloading in Java

Question

Please can you tell me if it is possible to overload operators in Java? If it is used anywhere in Java could you please tell me about it.

Answer 1

As many others have answered: Java doesn't support user-defined operator overloading.

Maybe this is off-topic, but I want to comment on some things I read in some answers.

About readability.
Compare:

1. c = a + b
2. c = a.add(b)

Look again!
Which one is more readable?

A programming language that allows the creation of user-defined types, should allow them to act in the same way as the built-in types (or primitive types).

So Java breaks a fundamental principle of Generic Programming:
We should be able to interchange objects of built-in types with objects of user-defined types.
(You may be wondering: "Did he say 'objects of built-in'?". Yes, see here.)

About String concatenation:

Mathematicians use the symbol + for commutative operations on sets.
So we can be sure that a + b = b + a.
String concatenation (in most programming languages) doesn't respect this common mathematical notation.

a := "hello";
b := "world";
c := (a + b = b + a);

or in Java:

String a = "hello";
String b = "world";
boolean c = (a + b).equals(b + a);

Extra:
Notice how in Java equality and identity are confused. The == (equality) symbol means:
a. Equality for primitive types.
b. Identity-check for user-defined types, therefore, we are forced to use the function equals() for equality.
But... What has this to do with operator overloading?
If the language allows the operator overloading the user could give the proper meaning to the equality operator.