 - In object-oriented programming, polymorphism (from the Greek meaning "having multiple forms") is the characteristic of being able to assign a different meaning or usage to something in different contexts - specifically, to allow an entity such as a variable, a function, or an object to have more than one form. There are several different kinds of polymorphism.
1) A variable with a given name may be allowed to have different forms and the program can determine which form of the variable to use at the time of execution. For example, a variable named USERID may be capable of being either an integer (whole number) or a string of characters (perhaps because the programmer wants to allow a user to enter a user ID as either an employee number - an integer - or with a name - a string of characters). By giving the program a way to distinguish which form is being handled in each case, either kind can be recognized and handled.
2) A named function can also vary depending on the parameters it is given. For example, if given a variable that is an integer, the function chosen would be to seek a match against a list of employee numbers; if the variable were a string, it would seek a match against a list of names. In either case, both functions would be known in the program by the same name. This type of polymorphism is sometimes known as overloading.
In C++, for example, the operator known as the plus sign (+) - which is effectively a simple named function - can be assigned to operate on two objects such that it adds them together (perhaps the most common form of the + operation) or, as in Boolean searching, a + can indicate a logical "and" (meaning that both words separated by the + operator must be present in order for a citation to be returned). In another context, the + sign could mean an operation to concatenate the two objects or strings of letters on either side of the + sign.
A given operator can also be given yet another meaning when combined with another operator. For example, in the C++ language, a "++" following a variable can mean "increment this value by 1". The meaning of a particular operator is defined as part of a class definition. Since the programmer can create classes, the programmer can also define how operators work for this class of objects; in effect, the programmer can redefine the computing language.
3) Polymorphism can mean, as in the ML language, a data type of "any," such that when specified for a list, a list containing any data types can be processed by a function. (For example, if a function simply determines the length of a list, it doesn't matter what data types are in the list.)
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14 Apr 2003
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