What is the advantage of Method Overloading in OOPS concept

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Can anyone please tell me the advantage of method overloading. I know that method overloading means methods having same name but different argument lists. This same thing can be done using different function names also.And both these ways require same compilation time and other resources also.
Hence please tell me the major advantage of method overloading in programming point of view.. Thank You

Posted 25-Feb-12 3:27am

lalit4848

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Posted 25-Feb-12 17:21pm

lalit4848

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-25T03:36:00

Which would you rather remember: one method name, with 6 overloads, or 6 different method names:

ComputeFromDataTableLengthWidthAndHeight
ComputeFromDictionaryLengthWidthAndHeight
ComputeFromDataTableWidthAndHeight
ComputeFromDictionaryWidthAndHeight
ComputeFromDataTableAndHeight
ComputeFromDictionaryAndHeight

And which would you rather type? Or read in the code?

In the old days, we had limited everything, so you got a sequence of functions with similar names:

ComputeDTLWH
ComputeDLWH
ComputeDTWH
ComputeDWH
ComputeDTH
ComputeDH

It's too easy to make a mistake!

Sander Rossel · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-25T03:39:00

Solution 2

Well, one obvious advantage I can think of is that you don't have to think for a name for every overload...
For example, MessageBox.Show in .NET has 21(!) overloads. Imagine having 21 methods that all do the same thing.
MessageBox.ShowWithTextOnly
MessageBox.ShowWithTextAndCaption
MessageBox.ShowWithTextAndCaptionsAndIcon
MessageBox.ShowWithTextAndCaptionsAndIconAndButtons
...
I think you get the point :)
Basically, what it does here is improve consistency and readability.
Besides, how are you going to call a constructor with different parameters if overloading is not supported?

Posted 25-Feb-12 3:39am

Sander Rossel

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 25-Feb-12 23:07pm

Good reply, my 6.
I only want to add:

1) Overloading has nothing to do with OOP, ever.
2) It's good to understand that "overloading" is just a bad term, because nothing is actually "loaded"; the sensible explanation of the term is merely "having methods of different signatures using the same name".
--SA

Sander Rossel 26-Feb-12 2:53am

Thanks SA. The term is indeed misleading. Overloading even sounds bad, like you're loading to much and your computer might explode :)