Method Overloading in Java
If a class has
multiple methods having same name but different in parameters, it is known as Method Overloading.
If we have to perform only one operation, having same
name of the methods increases the readability of the program.
Suppose you have to perform addition of the given
numbers but there can be any number of arguments, if you write the method such
as a(int,int) for two parameters, and b(int,int,int) for three parameters then
it may be difficult for you as well as other programmers to understand the
behavior of the method because its name differs.
So, we perform method overloading to figure out the
program quickly.
Advantage of method overloading
Method overloading increases the
readability of the program.
Different ways to overload the method
There are two ways to overload the method in java
- By changing number of arguments
- By changing the data type
In java,
Method Overloading is not possible by changing the return type of the method
only.
1) Method Overloading: changing no. of arguments
In
this example, we have created two methods, first add() method performs addition
of two numbers and second add method performs addition of three numbers.In this example, we are creating static methods so that we don't need to create instance for calling methods.
class Adder{
static int add(int a,int b){return
a+b;}
static int add(int a,int b,int
c){return a+b+c;}
}
class TestOverloading1{
public static void main(String[]
args){
System.out.println(Adder.add(11,11));
System.out.println(Adder.add(11,11,11));
}}
Output:
22
33
2) Method Overloading: changing data type of arguments
In this example, we have created two methods that differs in data
type. The first add method receives two integer arguments and second add method
receives two double arguments.
class Adder{
static int add(int a, int b){return a+b;}
static double add(double a, double b){return a+b;}
}
class TestOverloading2{
public static void main(String[] args){
System.out.println(Adder.add(11,11));
System.out.println(Adder.add(12.3,12.6));
}}
Output:
22
24.9
Q) Why Method Overloading is not possible by
changing the return type of method only?
In java, method overloading is not
possible by changing the return type of the method only because of ambiguity.
Let's see how ambiguity may occur:
class Adder{
static int add(int a,int b){return a+b;}
static double add(int a,int b){return
a+b;}
}
class TestOverloading3{
public static void main(String[] args){
System.out.println(Adder.add(11,11));//ambiguity
}}
Output:
Compile Time Error: method add(int,int) is
already defined in class Adder
System.out.println(Adder.add(11,11));
//Here, how can java determine which sum() method should be called?
Note: Compile Time Error is better than Run
Time Error. So, java compiler renders compiler time error if you declare the
same method having same parameters.
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