Overloading methods that do logically different things, does this break any major principles?

Question

This is something that's been bugging me for a bit now. In some cases you see code that is a series of overloads, but when you look at the actual implementation you realize they do logically different things. However writing them as overloads allows the caller
to ignore this and get the same end result. But would it be more sound to name the methods more explicitly then to write them as overloads?
public void LoadWords(string filePath)
var lines = File.ReadAllLines(filePath).ToList();
LoadWords(lines);
public void LoadWords(IEnumerable<string> words)
// loads words into a List<string> based on some filters
Would these methods better serve future developers to be named as LoadWordsFromFile() and LoadWordsFromEnumerable()?
It seems unnecessary to me, but if that is better what programming principle would apply here?
On the flip side it'd make it so you didn't need to read the signatures to see exactly how you can load the words, which as Uncle Bob says would be a double take. But in general is this type of overloading to be avoided then?

Answer 1

Hi PandoraElite,
>>Would these methods better serve future developers to be named as LoadWordsFromFile() and LoadWordsFromEnumerable()? It seems unnecessary to me, but if that is better what programming principle would apply here?
I think you could define a class with many complex behavior, and the behavior has the same method name with different parameters like below:
//difine the class
public class LoadClass
public void LoadWords(string filePath)
//add method
MessageBox.Show("string");
public void LoadWords(IEnumerable<string> words)
// loads words into a List<string> based on some filters
MessageBox.Show("IEnumerable<string> words");
//use the class
string str = "hello";
List<string> list = new List<string> { "h","e","l","l"};
TestClass.LoadClass loadclass = new TestClass.LoadClass();
loadclass.LoadWords(str);
loadclass.LoadWords(list);
>>On the flip side it'd make it so you didn't need to read the signatures to see exactly how you can load the words, which as Uncle Bob says would be a double take. But in general is this type of overloading to be avoided then?
I think it would be better not to use the “LoadWords(lines)” in the “public void LoadWords(string filePath)”. When you modify the “LoadWords(IEnumerable<string> words”, it would affect the “LoadWords(lines)” method and the function of the “LoadWords(lines)”method
might be effected.
Best Regards,
Edward
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