static overloaded methods

[vuthlarhi donald]

source: www.irixtech.com

class Shape{}

class Circle extends Shape{}

class Test
{
	public static void render(Shape s, Circle c)
	{
		System.out.println("render(Shape s, Circle c)");
	}

	public static void render(Circle c, Shape s)
	{
		System.out.println("render(Circle c, Shape s)");
	}

	public static void main(String args[])
	{
		Circle c1 = new Circle();
		Shape s1 = c1;
		render(c1, s1);
	}
}

output is: render(Circle c, Shape s)

can someone explain to why is the output like that

[reji singh]

since this is overloading of method so here method call will depend on the type of the reference.


the call render(c1, s1); essentially means a call to method which have parameter of type Circle and Shape. Also, if you try to change the signature of second method to

  public static void render(Shape1 c, Shape1 s)  

then also the same method will be called but if you change this to

    public static void render(Circle c, Circle s) 

then it will fail to compile as Shape is not of type Circle but opposite is true

[Stephen Davies]

What you have provided in your code is NOT overloading. The basic tenet for overloading requires at minimum, your Argument types are different. Simply swapping their order in the argument list, does not constitute this.

Hope this helps


Steve Davies

[Ruben Soto]

Stephen, actually that is proper overloading (argument types are compared in order from first to last in each method.)

[vuthlarhi donald]

thank you guys..now I uderstand...fully understand

[Ankit Garg]

Stephen Davies wrote:What you have provided in your code is NOT overloading.

If what you are saying is true, then that means that the methods are the same. Then can you tell us how the code get's compiled if there are two methods with same signature in a class...