Types of Polymorphism

Tags:  oop  java  cpp 

Polymorphism, at its core, allows for flexible code in object-oriented programming. It essentially means “having many forms” and lets objects or functions exhibit different behaviors in various contexts. It enables code to be written in a more generic and flexible manner, allowing for more modular and extensible designs

Polymorphism is mainly of two types:

1. Compile-time polymorphism (Static binding)

Since the compiler can definitively determine which function to call based on the information available at the time of compilation, it’s called static polymorphism. Static polymorphism is achieved via method overloading or operator overloading

(a) Method Overloading

We can have multiple methods with the exact same name but different signatures and the compiler is able to decide which method to call.

// Calculates Area of Rectangle
double calculateArea(int length, int breadth) {
    return length * breadth;
}
// Calculates Area of Circle
double calculateArea(int radius) {
    return M_PI * radius * radius;
}
int main() {
    int l = 5, b = 7;
    cout << "Area of Rectangle: " << calculateArea(l, b) << endl;
    int r = 6;
    cout << "Area of Circle: " << calculateArea(r) << endl;
    return 0;
}
/* Output:
Area of Rectangle: 35
Area of Circle: 113.097
*/

The method signature includes:

Note that the method return type is NOT a part of it’s signature

// Although return-type different, signatures same. So INVALID
void add(int a, int b) { cout << a + b << endl; }
int add(int a, int b) { return a + b; }

There is typically no inheritance of classes involved in overloading

(b) Operator Overloading (C++)

class Point
{
private:
    int x, y;
public:
    Point(int _x = 0, int _y = 0) : x(_x), y(_y) {}


    bool operator==(const Point &other) const {
        return (this->x == other.x && this->y == other.y);
    }


    bool operator!=(const Point &other) const {
        return !(*this == other);
    }


    friend ostream &operator<<(ostream &out, const Point &p) {
        out << "(" << p.x << ", " << p.y << ")";
        return out;
    }
};


int main()
{
    Point p1(9, 3), p2(9, 3), p3(6, 2);
    cout << "Point p1 is " << p1 << endl;   // Point p1 is (9, 3)
    cout << "Point p2 is " << p2 << endl;   // Point p2 is (9, 3)
    cout << "Point p3 is " << p3 << endl;   // Point p3 is (6, 2)


    cout << (p1 == p2) << endl; // 1
    cout << (p1 == p3) << endl; // 0
    cout << (p1 != p3) << endl; // 1


    return 0;
}

2. Runtime polymorphism (Dynamic binding)

Method Overriding