Java cannot overload any operators. Why? [duplicate]

Question

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Java operator overload

In c++, we can perform the operator overloading. But Java is also a Object oriented language. So why java doesn't support overloading?

Answer 1

http://java.sun.com/docs/white/langenv/Simple.doc2.html

There are no means provided by which programmers can overload the standard arithmetic operators. Once again, the effects of operator overloading can be just as easily achieved by declaring a class, appropriate instance variables, and appropriate methods to manipulate those variables. Eliminating operator overloading leads to great simplification of code.

The last statement is of course very subjective.

Answer 2

Actually, it does support operator overloading... of a very limited, built-in only nature. For instance "+" is overloaded for String's in addition to the usual arithmetic.

Of course, most people want to know why Java does not support user-defined operator overloading. :-) The simplest answer seems to be that the Java creators did not, at the time, see any clean way to add it to the language without making Java a mess (like C++) in the process.