Call Overloading¶

Call overloading is a fairly new feature to Julia. The idea is that a function is also just a type: it's a type which is "callable", i.e. the instance of the type acts like a function. These functions compile and thus are as fast as any other function. As of v0.5, anonymous functions are now instances of callable types which are generated as needed.

To make a callable type, first make a type:

In [1]:

mutable struct CallTest
    a::Float64 
end

Then define its call as follows:

In [2]:

(c::CallTest)(b::Float64) = c.a*b

Note that the fields of the CallTest from which the function is defined are available from within the function (this can be used to store model parameters, see ParameterizedFunctions.jl). Now if you make an instance of CallTest, it will both act like your type an the function you described. For example:

In [3]:

c = CallTest(2.0)
c(3.0)

Out[3]:

6.0

You can add extra dispatches to the function on your type:

In [4]:

(c::CallTest)(b::Int) = c.a/b

In [5]:

c(2)

Out[5]:

1.0