Lesson 69

Method Overloading

PRESENTED BY

Keith Vassallo icemalta.com

Overloading
- Overloading methods means creating methods in the same class with the
same name but with different arguments.
- This might seem like a strange idea, but it can actually be very useful.
- Imagine we have a getBMI() method, which must work with both metric and
imperial measurements.
- The metric version accepts two parameters – height (in cm) and weight (in kg)
- The imperial version accepts three parameters – feet, inches and weight (in
lbs).
- What would you call the two methods?
• getImperialBMI and getMetricBMI?

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• getBMI1 and getBMI2?
• getBMIWithFeetAndPounds and getBMIwithCMandKG?
Overloading
With method overloading, both methods can have the same name:

public double getBMI(float height, float weight) {

return weight / (height * height);
}

public double getBMI(int feet, int inches, int lbs) {

int heightInInches = (feet*12)+inches;
return (double) (lbs / (heightInInches * heightInInches)) * 703;
}

- The two methods have the same name, but a different argument list.

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- Java will automatically decide which method to use, based on the
parameters given.
Overloading
Java chooses the method to call.

public double getBMI(float height, float weight) {

return weight / (height * height);
} getBMI(173, 85);
public double getBMI(int feet, int inches, int lbs) { getBMI(5, 8, 187);
int heightInInches = (feet*12)+inches;
return (double) (lbs / (heightInInches * heightInInches)) * 703;
}

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Great work, you’ve completed this lesson!

Next up: Arguments By Reference

and By Value

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