Polymorphism

Polymorphism allows objects to be treated as instances of their parent class rather than their actual class. It provides a way to perform a single action in different forms.

Types of Polymorphism

There are two types of polymorphism in Java:

• Compile-time Polymorphism (Method Overloading)
• Runtime Polymorphism (Method Overriding)

Method Overloading

Method overloading allows a class to have more than one method with the same name, differentiated by parameters:

public class MathOperations {
    // Method to add two integers
    public int add(int a, int b) {
        return a + b;
    }
    
    // Overloaded method to add three integers
    public int add(int a, int b, int c) {
        return a + b + c;
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MathOperations math = new MathOperations();
        System.out.println(math.add(10, 20)); // Outputs: 30
        System.out.println(math.add(10, 20, 30)); // Outputs: 60
    }
}
      

Method Overriding

Method overriding allows a subclass to provide a specific implementation of a method already provided by its superclass:

public class Animal {
    public void makeSound() {
        System.out.println("Animal sound");
    }
}

public class Cat extends Animal {
    @Override
    public void makeSound() {
        System.out.println("Meow");
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Animal myCat = new Cat();
        myCat.makeSound(); // Outputs: Meow
    }
}
      

In this example, the Cat class overrides the makeSound method of the Animal class.

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