Overloading and polymorphism are two seemingly similar characteristics of functi
ID: 3829396 • Letter: O
Question
Overloading and polymorphism are two seemingly similar characteristics of functions and operators. Sometimes, overloading is termed as ad hoc polymorphism. (a) Explain the difference between an overloaded and a polymorphic (or generic) function/operator. Give an example of each in your favourite programming language. (b) Give a scenario where polymorphic function is useful. (c) Name a commonly used polymorphic function of the C language. (d) Another related concept is coercion, which changes the types of the operands. Explain what coercion is. In particular, state the "direction" of type change. (e) The C language supports coercion. Give a simple program (fragment) in C, which contains a small programming error. State the error and explain why coercion destroys type- checking's effectiveness to catch this error.Explanation / Answer
Difference b/w
Polymorphism is the process to define more than one body for functions/methods with same name.
Overloading is a type of polymorphism, where the signature part must be different. Overriding is another, that is used in case of inheritance where signature part is also same.
the polymorphism is the base of the OOP, the overloading is one of ways to implement to polymorphism, specially when are involved operators. More generally, speaking about polymorphism when there are two or more classes involved. While the overloading can be made also inside the same class, we can overload the name of a method with several signatures (different list of parameters). While overriding is designed exclusively for involving two or more classes. Note that the overrided methods have all the same signature.
Polymorphism is a programming language feature that allows values of different data types to be handled using a uniform interface.
In layman terms take the following four wheeler example:
Suppose you have a four wheeler car, you can make different type of another using the car. This is one kind of polymorphism.
Difine the headar file and call as the funcation can use the polymorphic function in C
for example
animal.h
cat.c//add animal behaviour
dog.c//add animal behaviour
main.c// call the header file in C language
coercion :Many programming languages support the conversion of a value into another of a different data type. This kind of type conversions can be implicitly or explicitly made. Implicit conversion, which is also called coercion, is automatically done. And the explicit conversion is known as Casting.
example :
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