How do I overload `float()` for a custom class?

Solution 1:

Define the __float__() special method on your class.

class MyClass(object):
    def __float__(self):
         return 0.0

float(MyClass())   # 0.0

Note that this method must return a float! The calculation self.num / self.denom, returns an int by default in versions of Python prior to 3.0 assuming both operands are integers. In this case you'd just make sure one of the operands is a float: float(self.num) / self.denom for example.