Overloading assignment operator

[J. Clifford Dyer]

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 18:07:55 -0800, Russ wrote:
> 
>> Achim Domma wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I want to use Python to script some formulas in my application. The user
>>> should be able to write something like
>>>
>>> A = B * C
>>>
>>> where A,B,C are instances of some wrapper classes. Overloading * is no
>>> problem but I cannot overload the assignment of A. I understand that
>>> this is due to the nature of Python, but is there a trick to work around
>>> this?
>>> All I'm interested in is a clean syntax to script my app. Any ideas are
>>> very welcome.
>>>
>>> regards,
>>> Achim
>> Why do you need to overload assignment anyway? If you overloaded "*"
>> properly, it should return
>> the result you want, which you then "assign" to A as usual. Maybe I'm
>> missing something.
> 
> One common reason for overriding assignment is so the left-hand-side of
> the assignment can choose the result type. E.g. if Cheddar, Swiss and
> Wensleydale are three custom classes, mutually compatible for
> multiplication:
> 
> B = Cheddar()  # B is type Cheddar
> C = Swiss()    # C is type Swiss
> # without overloading assignment
> A = B * C      # A is (possibly) Cheddar since B.__mul__ is called first
> A = C * B      # A is (possibly) Swiss since C.__mul__ is called first
> # with (hypothetical) assignment overloading 
> A = B * C      # A is type Wensleydale since A.__assign__ is called
> 
> Except, of course, there is no assignment overloading in Python. There
> can't be, because A may not exist when the assignment is performed, and
> if it does exist it might be a complete different type.
> 
> Instead, you can do something like this:
>  
> A = Wensleydale(B) * Wensleydale(C)
> 
> or 
> 
> A = Wensleydale(B * C)
> 
> 
> 
> 

I think that's the first time I've actually seen someone use a Monty
Python theme for a python example, and I must say, I like it.  However,
"We are all out of Wensleydale."

Cheers,
Cliff