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Forms of Polymorphism

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32 views

Forms of Polymorphism

Uploaded by

RajeshGupta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Prepared by Suman Ojha

Department of Computer Science and Engineering


Nepal Engineering College

Forms of Polymorphism

Polymorphism refers to having more than one form. OOP helps to achieve polymorphism in
various ways.

1 Overloading:
 Also called Ad-hoc Polymorphism.
 Here, one name is used that refers to two or more different implementations.
 A single function name denoting two or more function bodies is Function Overloading.
 An operator used to perform the operation similar to basic data types in user defined data
types is Operator Overloading.
 Both of these are forms of overloading.

2 Overriding:
 Also called Inclusion Polymorphism.
 A child class redefines a method inherited from a parent class.

3 Polymorphic variables:
 Polymorphism employing polymorphic variables is also called Assignment Polymorphism.
 It is a variable that can hold different types of values during the course of execution.
 When a polymorphic variable is used as a parameter (argument) to a function, the
phenomenon is called “Pure polymorphism” or Polymorphic Method.
 Example: a pointer to the base class can hold address of base class objects as well as the
address of all other types of derived class objects.

4 Deferred (Abstract) Method:


 Deferred method is special case of overriding.
 Parent class gives type signature, but provides no implementation.
 Child class must provide an implementation.
 Pure virtual function acts as a deferred method (function) because its implementation
(body) is postponed to be defined in derived class (i.e. the defining process is deferred or
postponed).

5 Generics:
 It is the form of polymorphism achieved with the use of templates.
 Templates help in creating general type of classes and functions by defining the parameters
used.
 Class Template helps in creating various classes with single class definition.
 Function Template helps in creating various functions with single function definition.
Prepared by Suman Ojha
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Nepal Engineering College

Note:

 A virtual function in a base class is also a virtual in derived class (if it gets inherited).
 Method Invocation (Function call) is when you give a call to method.
 Message Passing is passing objects as parameters (to a function).
 Data contained in objects is called State of a Class and algorithm implemented in various
member functions is called Behavior of a Class.

References:

[1] http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/~hcc/csci581oo/notes/budd12.html

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