Questions for the Day!

Question

Hi all,
Well I got cracking on the books and I don't know if I am already getting fatigued, but there are a series of questions I want to ask to get this stuff under my belt.
First of all I a confused with method overloading and overriding.
I have come up with questions that seem relevant.
1.) Is Having multiple constructors in a class definition an example of overloading. I would say no, because only methods can be overloaded.
2.) If two methods have the same signature, does that mean they are overloaded. I would say they would be overridden.
3.) Is it possible to overload a method without involving the base class. I am confused with this one.
4.)Is it possible to override a method without involving a base class? Confused again.
Can someone point out some reasons for answers, since I want to understand?
Thanks,
mileinfive

Answer 1

Some definitions:
Overriding -
When a subclass defines a method with the same signature and name as a method in the parent class, but provides different logic in the body of the method. Here is an example of overriding:
class Parent {
   public void printAge() {
      System.out.println("I am old");
class Child extends Parent {
   public void printAge() {
       System.out.println("I am young");
}Now, say you have a Parent object named "p" and a Child object named "c", and you call the printAge() method of each one:
p.getAge();   // prints "I am old"
c.getAge();   // prints "I am young"...even though the Child is a subclass of Parent and it inherits the Parent class's getAge() method, by defining its own version of the method it is overridden.
Overloading -
In overloading, you provide more than one method with the same name, but each of these methods has a different signature. So that if you call the method of that name, the actual method that is executed depends on the arguments you pass to it.
public class NosePicker {
   public void pickNose() {
      System.out.println("What a boring nosepicker, no arguments.");
   public void pickNose(Int snots) {
      System.out.println("You picked " + snots + " snots!");
   public void pickNose(Int snots, Int times) {
      System.out.println("You are amazing! You picked "
                         + snots + " snots " + times
                         + "times!!!");
}Now with this class, a different method is called depending on what argument signature is given.
Make sense?