What is method overloading?

Method overloading is the ability in a single class to have multiple methods with the same name but different parameter lists.

Differences between overloaded methods:

• Number of parameters.
• Types of parameters.
• Order of parameter types.

The return type is not a criterion for overloading.

For example:

class Calculator {
    // Method for adding two integers
    int add(int a, int b) {
        return a + b;
    }

    // Overloaded method for adding two floating-point numbers
    double add(double a, double b) {
        return a + b;
    }

    // Overloaded method for adding three integers
    int add(int a, int b, int c) {
        return a + b + c;
    }
}

The compiler determines which overloaded method to call at compile time based on the call signature (method name and argument types). This is known as static (or early) binding.

Advantages of overloading:

• Improved code readability: allows using intuitively understandable names for similar operations.
• Reduced code duplication: there's no need to come up with many different names for functionally similar methods.