overloading.md

Overloading

Multiple methods can be declared that have the same name. This is allowed so long as each method takes different types or different numbers of arguments.

void doThing(int x) {
    System.out.println(x);
}

void doThing(String name) {
    System.out.println("Hello " + name);
}

void doThing(int x, int y) {
    System.out.println(x + y);
}

When you call the method, Java will know what code to run because it knows the types of and number of arguments you are passing.

void doThing(int x) {
    System.out.println(x);
}

void doThing(String name) {
    System.out.println("Hello " + name);
}

void doThing(int x, int y) {
    System.out.println(x + y);
}

void main() {
    // Java can figure out what to do
    doThing(1);
    doThing("abc");
    doThing(1, 2);
}

When there are multiple methods that have the same name but take different arguments, those methods are considered "overloads" of eachother¹

Footnotes

1. "Overloading" in this context means when one word has more than one possible meaning depending on how it is used. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. ↩