Function overloading

In some <a href="/facts/Programming_language/cWTYbgWa">programming languages</a>, function overloading or method overloading is the ability to create multiple <a href="/facts/Subprogram/9vFJrg0A">functions</a> of the same name with different implementations. Calls to an overloaded function will run a specific implementation of that function appropriate to the context of the call, allowing one function call to perform different tasks depending on context.
For example, doTask() and doTask(object o) are overloaded functions. To call the latter, an <a href="/facts/Object_(computer_science)/eX99dtAw">object</a> must be passed as a <a href="/facts/Parameter_(computer_science)/LcuLbbSq">parameter</a>, whereas the former does not require a parameter, and is called with an empty parameter field. A common error would be to assign a default value to the object in the second function, which would result in an ambiguous call error, as the <a href="/facts/Compiler/WNfCDFJe">compiler</a> wouldn't know which of the two methods to use.
Another example is a Print(object o) function that executes different actions based on whether it's printing text or photos. The two different functions may be overloaded as Print(text_object T); Print(image_object P). If we write the overloaded print functions for all objects our program will "print", we never have to worry about the type of the object, and the correct function call again, the call is always: Print(something).

Function overloading open-in-new

Function overloading