Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading

andand@csd.uu.se (Anders Andersson)
Wed, 26 Oct 1994 14:16:25 GMT

          From comp.compilers
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Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading geld@cs.sun.ac.za (1994-10-31)
Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading ram@cs.cmu.edu (Rob MacLachlan) (1994-10-25)
Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading billk@cs.ukans.edu (1994-10-31)
Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading Mike.Chapman@muc.de (Mike Chapman) (1994-10-31)
Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading jsm@id.dth.dk (1994-10-31)
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Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading danhicks@aol.com (1994-10-31)
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Re: Polymorphism vs. Overloading jhf@c3serve.c3.lanl.gov (1994-10-28)
[12 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: andand@csd.uu.se (Anders Andersson)
Keywords: polymorphism
Organization: Computing Science Department, Uppsala University, Sweden.
References: 94-10-144 94-10-154
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 14:16:25 GMT

Gabriela O. de Vivo <gdevivo@conicit.ve> wrote:
> [...] exact difference between Polymorphism and Overloading.


jhallen@world.std.com (Joseph H Allen) writes:
  > The difference is purely syntactical.


A different and common answer is:
Overloading is the use of the same name for different functions.
Polymorphism is the use of the same function for different types of arguments.


According to this definition, the use of '+' for both addition of integers
and concatination of strings is overloading. A function that determines the
length of a list while ignoring the type of its elements is polymorphic.


Anders Andersson
andand@csd.uu.se
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