What does polymorphism mean in OOP?

[Khan Baba]

Hello friend,

I just completed the C programming and going to start the object oriented programming. Before that I want to be aware the basic concepts of the OOP. And as per my knowledge the 'Polymorphism' is very important concept of the OOP. If you have sound knowledge about the 'Polymorphism' concept in Object oriented programming, then please let me know that. I would appropriate your any help.

[opaper]

The term polymorphism is oftenly used in OOP. But do not stop at that. To better understand, just to analyze the structure of the word: poly as many and morphism as shape. The polymorphism addresses the ability of the object to have several form. This ability derives directly from the principle of inheritance earlier. Indeed, as we already knows, an object will inherit fields and methods of its ancestors. But something always keeps the ability to redefine a method to rewrite it, or complete.

[MindSpace]

The name of polymorphism comes from Greek and means "that can take several forms". The concept of polymorphism should not be confused with that of multiple inheritance. Indeed, multiple inheritance - not supported by the pascal standard which allows an object to inherit members (fields and methods) of several objects at once, while the polymorphism lies in the ability of an object to change its own behavior and that of his descendants during execution.

[Modifier]

Hi,

The 'polymorphism' is one of the key concepts OOP. While the legacy for classes (and their hierarchy), polymorphism is related methods of objects. The 'polymorphism' categorized into following types:

• Ad hoc polymorphism
• Parametric polymorphism
• The inheritance polymorphism

[Praetor]

Parametric polymorphism sometimes referred as generics, represents the possibility to define several functions the same name but with different parameters (number and / or type). This type of polymorphism makes it possible the automatic choice of the correct method to adopt according type of data passed as parameter. Parametric polymorphism is provided in Python, but can circumvent the problem by testing the type parameters

[Katty]

The functionality for to redefining a method in OOP classes for inheriting from a base class called polymorphism. It is then possible to call the method of an object without worrying about its intrinsic type, it is the inheritance polymorphism. This allows to ignore the details of special classes a family object, by hiding a common interface (which is the base class). The ad hoc polymorphism allows to define operators whose use will be different depending on the type parameters they are gone.