---
title: Introduction to the Learn Special Methods by Building a Vector Space
block: learn-special-methods-by-building-a-vector-space
superBlock: scientific-computing-with-python
---

## Introduction to the Learn Special Methods by Building a Vector Space

Python special methods are called in response to specific operations and enable you to customize the behavior of your objects in a detailed and effective way. These methods, often known as magic methods or dunder methods (due to their double underscores), allow you to define how objects of your custom classes behave with built-in operations like addition, subtraction, comparison, and string representation.

For instance, you can add two instances of a custom class by implementing the `__add__` method like this:

```python
def __add__(self, other):
    return MyClass(self.value + other.value)
```

When you add two instances of `MyClass`, Python calls the `__add__` method, which returns a new instance with the sum of the values.

Similarly, you can customize the behavior of other operations by implementing the corresponding special methods. For example, the `__str__` method defines how an object is represented as a string when you call the `str()` function:

```python
def __str__(self):
    return f"MyClass instance with value {self.value}"
```

In this project, you are going to explore some of the most common special methods while learning about vectors by building a vector space. By creating vector classes and implementing special methods, you'll learn how to enable operations such as vector addition, subtraction, scalar multiplication, dot products, and comparisons.
