Python __add__() Method

The add() Method

Magic methods can control what happens when you use an operator, like +, on your own objects. This is called operator overloading.

Example

Use __add__() to add the age of two Person objects together:

class Person:
  def __init__(self, name, age):
    self.name = name
    self.age = age

  def __add__(self, other):
    return self.age + other.age

p1 = Person("Emil", 22)
p2 = Person("Tobias", 19)

print(p1 + p2)

Note: Without __add__(), writing p1 + p2 would raise a TypeError, since Python would not know how to add two Person objects.