Introduction
This article describes how method overloading works in Java. The Netbeans IDE is used for the development of the example.
What method overloading is
Method overloading is a concept in Java in which we can have the same names for two methods in the same class. Method overloading is a part of polymorphism which is a feature of Java.
Rules
The rules for doing method overloading are:
- In method overloading, the signature of the method must not be the same.
- The method overloading should be done in one class.
- Changing the signature means to either change the number of arguments, the type of arguments or the order of the arguments.
Advantages
The advantages of method overloading are:
- The two methods can have the same name in a class.
- The method in a overloading class can be final, static or private.
- In Java the overloaded method is bond by static bonding.
- Private and final methods can be overloaded in Java.
Example
In this example; we describe method overloading using the Netbeans IDE. There are the following steps in the Netbeans IDE and these are explained as below.
Step 1
Open the Netbeans IDE.
![fig 1.jpg]()
Step 2
Click on the "File" from the Menu bar as shown below.
![fig 2.jpg]()
Step 3
Click on "New Project" as in the following:
![fig 3.jpg]()
Step 4
Select "Java" and "Java application" as in the following:
![fig 4.jpg]()
Step 5
Click on "Next" as in the following:
![fig 5.jpg]()
Step 6
Instead of the project name specify "Overloading" and instead of the main class also specify "Overloading" and click on "Finish".
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Step 7
In this class write the following code (the class name is "Overloading"):
class Overloading
{
void sum(int num1,int num2)
{
int result;
result=num1+num2;
System.out.println("the sum of two numbers is"+result);
}
void sum(int num1,int num2,int num3)
{
int result;
result=num1+num2+num3;
System.out.println("the sum of three numbers is "+result);
}
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Overloading obj=new Overloading();
obj.sum(10,20);
obj.sum(10,20,30);
}
}
![fig 7.jpg]()
Step 8
Now go to "Overloading" and right-click on that, click on "Run" from the menu bar as in the following:
![fig 8.jpg]()
Output
Two methods have the same name, in other words void sum is in the same class and this shows method overloading.
![fig 9.jpg]()