Polymorphism

Polymorphism, polymorphic or polymorph, from the Greek roots "poly" (many) and "morphe" (form, shape, structure), may refer to:

Computing

Polymorphism (computer science), the ability in computer programming to present the same programming interface for differing underlying forms (data types, classes)

Polymorphic code, self-modifying program code designed to defeat anti-virus programs or to defeat reverse engineers

Science

Polymorphism (materials science), the ability of a solid material to exist in multiple forms or crystal structures known as polymorphs

Polymorphism (biology), the occurrence of more than one form in the same population of a species.

Genetic polymorphism, is the branching of the genetic tree, caused by two or more alleles (gene forms) occurring at one DNA position or in one DNA region, each with appreciable frequency in the population. Examples are:

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), the existence of alternative point-mutations in one single base pair
Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)
Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)

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Polymorphism (computer science)

In programming languages and type theory, polymorphism (from Greek πολύς, polys, "many, much" and μορφή, morphē, "form, shape") is the provision of a single interface to entities of different types. A polymorphic type is one whose operations can also be applied to values of some other type, or types. There are several fundamentally different kinds of polymorphism:

Ad hoc polymorphism: when a function denotes different and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on a limited range of individually specified types and combinations. Ad hoc polymorphism is supported in many languages using function overloading.

Parametric polymorphism: when code is written without mention of any specific type and thus can be used transparently with any number of new types. In the object-oriented programming community, this is often known as generics or generic programming. In the functional programming community, this is often shortened to polymorphism.

Subtyping (also called subtype polymorphism or inclusion polymorphism): when a name denotes instances of many different classes related by some common superclass. In the object-oriented programming community, this is often simply referred to as polymorphism.

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