overload : Java Glossary

overload

Having two functions with the same name in the same method, but that differ in the types of their arguments. It is not legal to have two methods of the same name that differ only in their return types. Be careful. The rules for figuring out exactly which version of a method get invoked are baroque. Basically Java tries to match the most specific method for the type of the argument as known as compile time, e.g. String in preference to Object.

When you have overloaded methods, Java decides at compile time which variant method to use. Thus it must make its decisions based on the declared types of the references, not the types of corresponding run-time Objects. So for example:

In contrast, the Nice programming language does the matching at run time, based on the run-time types of the Objects.

Java’s general rule is to use the most specific matching method.

Learning More

Sun’s JLS: Java Language Specification: selecting method

@Override
DEBE
gotchas
Nice
println’s use overloaded methods and toString
shadow
subclass
super
superclass

	You can get the freshest copy of this page from:	or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/mindprod.com website mirror)
	http://mindprod.com/jgloss/overload.html	J:\mindprod\jgloss\overload.html
	Please email your feedback for publication, errors, omissions, typos, formatting errors, ambiguities, unclear wording, broken/redirected link reports, suggestions to improve this page or comments to Roedy Green :
	Canadian Mind Products
	mindprod.com IP:[65.110.21.43]
view Blog	Your face IP:[38.107.191.105]
Feedback	You are visitor number 24,229.