SIT Internal

Polymorphism
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Learning outcomes
➢ What is polymorphism?

➢ Motivation and examples

➢ Types of polymorphism
❑ Method Overloading
❑ Method Overriding
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Poly morphism
many form
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What is Polymorphism

Ability of objects to take on different forms or exhibit

different behaviors based on the context

What does it mean?

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What is Polymorphism?

A way of allowing similar operations to be grouped

together under the same name
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Let’s take another example

Dog Woof
Speak

Cat ?
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Let’s take another example

Dog Speak Woof

Cat Speak Meow

Cow Speak Moo

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Polymorphism

Method Overloading Method Overriding

the same name but different allows a subclass to provide its own
parameters to be defined in a class implementation of a method defined in
its superclass
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Method Overloading
Allows class to have more than one method having the same name, if their
argument lists are different.

public int calculateSum(int a, int b) {

// Method implementation
}

public double calculateAverage(int[] numbers) {

// Method implementation
}
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Method Overloading
class Calculator {
public int add(int a, int b) {
return a + b;
Calculator calculator = new Calculator();
}
int sum1 = calculator.add(5, 10);
public int add(int a, int b, int c) int sum2 = calculator.add(1, 2, 3);
{
return a + b + c;
}
}
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Method Overloading: Constructors

class Vehicle {
private String make;
private String model;
private int year; class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
public Vehicle(String m, String mod, int year) { Vehicle vehicle1 = new Vehicle("Toyota", "Camry“,
make = m;
model = mod; 2020);
year = y; Vehicle vehicle2 = new Vehicle("Honda", "Civic");
}
}
public Vehicle(String m, String mod) {
}
make = m;
model = mod;
}
}
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Method Overriding
subclass overrides the method inherited from the superclass and
provides its specific implementation.

• Argument list: The argument list of overriding method must be same

as that of the method in parent class.
• The data types of the arguments and their sequence should be
maintained as it is in the overriding method
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Code Example
class Animal {
public void speak() {
System.out.println("Animal makes a sound"); class Main {
} public static void main(String[] args) {
} Animal animalDog = new Dog();
class Dog extends Animal { Animal animalCat = new Cat();
public void speak() { animalDog.speak();
System.out.println("Dog barks");
animalCat.speak();
}
}
}
class Cat extends Animal { }
public void speak() {
System.out.println("Cat meows");
}
}
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Method Overriding
subclass overrides the method inherited from the superclass and
provides its specific implementation.

Access Modifier: The Access Modifier of the overriding

method (method of subclass) cannot be more restrictive than
the overridden method of parent class.
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Code Example

class Animal {
protected void speak() {
System.out.println("Animal makes a sound"); class Main {
} public static void main(String[]
} args) {
Animal animal = new Dog();
class Dog extends Animal { animal.speak();
public void speak() { }
System.out.println("Dog barks"); }
}
}
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Code Example

class Animal {
protected void speak() {
System.out.println("Animal makes a sound"); class Main {
} public static void main(String[]
} args) {
Animal animal = new Dog();
class Dog extends Animal { animal.speak();
private void speak() { }
System.out.println("Dog barks"); }
}
}
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Summary
• Polymorphism: actual type of an object can be different from the type it
is declared as.

• Method overloading deals with multiple methods with the same name in
the same class, but with different signatures

• Method overriding deals with two methods, one in a parent class and
one in a child class, that have the same signature