Why do we need operator functions in python?

Question

Why would one use operators in python when we have almost all of them available inline such as [/,*,-,+,<,>,...]?

When would we need to use these operator functions as opposed to the inline operators?

Answer 1

As an example of why you might like to be able to call an operator as a function, consider the following code:

    if op == "+":
        return num1 + num2
    elif op == "-":
        return num1 - num2
    elif op == "*":
        return num1 * num2
    else:
        raise ValueError(f"invalid operator {op}")

With operator this can be written more easily as:

    return {
        "+": operator.add,
        "-": operator.sub,
        "*": operator.mul,
    }[op](num1, num2)