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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 ...
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.
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.
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 ...
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 ...
There is some run-time cost associated with dynamically dispatching function calls. In some languages, [citation needed] the distinction between overloading and multimethods can be blurred, with the compiler determining whether compile time selection can be applied to a given function call, or whether slower run time dispatch is needed.
It is a form of method dispatch, which describes how a language or environment will select which implementation of a method or function to use. [1] Examples are templates in C++, and generic programming in Fortran and other languages, in conjunction with function overloading (including operator overloading).
Thus, calling f x, where f:: a-> b-> c, yields a new function f2:: b-> c that can be called f2 b to produce c. The actual type specifications can consist of an actual type, such as Integer , or a general type variable that is used in parametric polymorphic functions , such as a , or b , or anyType .