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overloaded operators

• Arithmetic operators are often used for more than one purpose. For example in Java, + can be used for integer and floating point addition BUT can also be used for string concatenation
• The multiple use of an operator is called OPERATOR OVERLOADING. It is generally acceptable unless it inhibits readability or reliability.

dangers

In C/C++ & can be a binary operator that specifies a bitwise logical AND

unsigned char a = 5, b = 4; 
printf("a&b = %d\n", a & b);

// output: a&b = 4
// x = &y; can be a unary operator for getting the address of a variable

• Some languages like C++ and C# allow the programmer to overload operator symbols. For example the user can define the * operator between a scalar integer and an integer array to be multiplied by a scalar. This can aid readability when sensibly used. For example if + and * are overloaded for a matrix data type
• A * B + C * D can be used instead of MatrixAdd(MatrixMult(A, B), MatrixMult(C, D))
• However, it can also be detrimental to readability. What if a user re-defines + to mean multiplication?