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In some programming languages, function overloading or method overloading is the ability to create multiple functions of the same name with different implementations. Calls to an overloaded function will run a specific implementation of that function appropriate to the context of the call, allowing one function call to perform different tasks ...
A new instance is created by calling the class as if it were a function, which calls the __new__ and __init__ methods. If a constructor method is not defined in the class, the next one found in the class's Method Resolution Order will be called. [14] In the typical case, only the __init__ method need be defined. (The most common exception is ...
This feature was available from early on in C++'s history, although the specific overloading mechanism changed. It was added to the language because object-oriented C++ programs tended to allocate many small objects with new , which internally used the C allocator (see § Relation to malloc and free ); that, however, was optimized for the fewer ...
A constructor is a method that is called at the beginning of an object's lifetime to create and initialize the object, a process called construction (or instantiation). Initialization may include an acquisition of resources. Constructors may have parameters but usually do not return values in most languages. See the following example in Java:
And even if methods owned by the base class call the virtual method, they will instead be calling the derived method. Overloading occurs when two or more methods in one class have the same method name but different parameters. Overriding means having two methods with the same method name and parameters. Overloading is also referred to as ...
The previous section notwithstanding, there are other ways in which ad hoc polymorphism can work out. Consider for example the Smalltalk language. In Smalltalk, the overloading is done at run time, as the methods ("function implementation") for each overloaded message ("overloaded function") are resolved when they are about to be executed.
Often the compiler selects the overload to call based on the type of the input arguments or it fails if the input arguments do not select an overload. Older and weakly-typed languages generally do not support overloading. Here is an example of overloading in C++, two functions Area that accept different types:
Return types and thrown exceptions are not considered to be a part of the method signature, nor are the names of parameters; they are ignored by the compiler for checking method uniqueness. The method signatures help distinguish overloaded methods (methods with the same name) in a class. Return types are not included in overloading.