8.3.1  Context-dependent functions.

The + operator.

The + operator is infixed and ’+’ is its prefixed version. The + operator will add numbers (see Section 7.3.2), concatenate strings (see Section 5.2.13), and convert a number to a string if necessary. Addition makes sense for other objects, and + can flexibly deal with them; the result of using the + operator depends on the nature of its arguments.

Examples

or:

or:

or:

(See Section 6.1.9.)

or:

or:

or:

or:

or:

(This is a polynomial; see Section 11.1.1.)

or:

or:

The -, * and / operators.

The -, * and / operators (and their prefixed versions ’-’, ’*’ and ’/’), like the + operator, are flexible and operate on compound objects (such as lists and sequences), but do not concatenate strings.

Examples of - and ’-’.

or:

or:

or:

or:

Examples of * and ’*’.

or:

or:

or:

or:

or:

or:

These compute the scalar product.

or:

These compute the scalar product.

or:

or:

or:

or:

Examples of / and ’/’.

or:

or:

(This is term-by-term division.)