Articles : JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java :
Java Classes :

Operator Overloading

Another cool feature of Java is that methods in Java can easily be overloaded such that the same method name can be used for several different implementations of the same action. Remember our previous example of printNumber(), printLetter(), printImage()?

The only requirement for overloading is that each version of the method takes a different set of parameters as arguments (sometimes, we say that it has a "different signature") such as in the following example:

int add(int a, int b)
  {
  return (a+b);
  }

double add(double a, double b)
  {
  return (a+b);
  }

float add(float a, float b)
  {
  return (a+b);
  }

Finally, it is worth noting that since methods belong to specific classes, it is fine for you to have the same method name with the same arguments in different classes. Thus, the Button class might have a setLabel(String s) method and a Label might have a setLabel(String s) method and neither will conflict since each method is specific to a specific class.

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Selena Sol contributes to the JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java. Selena curently works for Barclays Capital in London, one of the leading global investment banks in Europe and has worked as a software developer for the National Center for Human Genome research, Microline Software, Neuron Data, and Electric Eye in Singapore. Selena is perhaps best-known for creating the Public Domain Web Script Archive (Extropia) and writing several books on Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java).
Email: selena@extropia.com