Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Ad hoc polymorphism is a dispatch mechanism: control moving through one named function is dispatched to various other functions without having to specify the exact function being called. Overloading allows multiple functions taking different types to be defined with the same name; the compiler or interpreter automatically ensures that the right ...
Polymorphism can be distinguished by when the implementation is selected: statically (at compile time) or dynamically (at run time, typically via a virtual function). This is known respectively as static dispatch and dynamic dispatch, and the corresponding forms of polymorphism are accordingly called static polymorphism and dynamic polymorphism.
Virtual functions allow a program to call methods that don't necessarily even exist at the moment the code is compiled. [citation needed] In C++, virtual methods are declared by prepending the virtual keyword to the function's declaration in the base class. This modifier is inherited by all implementations of that method in derived classes ...
Since C++ does not support late binding, the virtual table in a C++ object cannot be modified at runtime, which limits the potential set of dispatch targets to a finite set chosen at compile time. Type overloading does not produce dynamic dispatch in C++ as the language considers the types of the message parameters part of the formal message name.
For example, the use of the << operator in C++ a << b shifts the bits in the variable a left by b bits if a and b are of an integer type, but if a is an output stream then the above code will attempt to write a b to the stream.
For example, to have a derived class with an overloaded function taking a double or an int, using the function taking an int from the base class, in C++, one would write: class B { public : void F ( int i ); }; class D : public B { public : using B :: F ; void F ( double d ); };
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Self-modifying code can involve overwriting existing instructions or generating new code at run time and transferring control to that code. Self-modification can be used as an alternative to the method of "flag setting" and conditional program branching, used primarily to reduce the number of times a condition needs to be tested.