Overloading

We cannot have two methods in the same class with the same signature.

However, we can have methods with the same name, but different parameter lists. * These methods are said to be overloaded.

method overloading

Creating a method with the same name as another method, but a different parameter list (types or number of parameters).

The methods below are overloaded. One addCharacter method has two parameters while the other has three.

public static String addCharacter(String input, int numExc) {
  String output = input;
  int counter = 0;
  while (counter < numExc) {
    output = output + "!";
    counter = counter + 1;
  }
  return output;
}

public static String addCharacter(String input, int numExc, String charToAdd) {
  String output = input;
  int counter = 0;
  while (counter < numExc) {
    output = output + charToAdd;
    counter = counter + 1;
  }
  return output;
}

These methods are nearly the same. When this happens we can call the overloaded version and pass an additional argument.

public static String addCharacter(String input, int numExc) {
  return addCharacter(input, numExc, "!"); //add "!" and let overloaded method do the logic
}

public static String addCharacter(String input, int numExc, String charToAdd) {
  String output = input;
  int counter = 0;
  while (counter < numExc) {
    output = output + charToAdd;
    counter = counter + 1;
  }
  return output;
}

Drill

Methods/src/examples/StringManipulationWithDefault.java

Run the program and follow the method calls.

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