Polymorphism is the next fundamental principle of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). Polymorphism is a Greek word that means many-shaped i.e. one object has many forms or has one name with multiple functionalities.
There are two types of polymorphism.
Compile-time polymorphism is achieved using method overloading and operator overloading. The method overloading means defining multiple methods with the same name but with different parameters.
Compile-time polymorphism is also known as static binding or early binding. The following code shows the method overloading of Add() methods, where both methods have the same name and different parameters.
Public Class MathUtility
Public Function Add(ByVal number1 As Integer, ByVal number2 As Integer) As Integer
Return (number1 + number2)
End Function
Public Function Add(ByVal number1 As Integer, ByVal number2 As Integer, ByVal number3 As Integer) As Integer
Return (number1 + number2 + number3)
End Function
End Class
In the above class, we defined two methods with the same name Add but with different parameters to achieve method overloading, and it is called a compile-time polymorphism.
You can call these methods to achieve a different result.
Public Sub MethodOverloadingExample()
Dim utility As MathUtility = New MathUtility()
utility.Add(2, 3)
utility.Add(2, 3, 4)
End Sub
Runtime polymorphism is achieved by method overriding, which is also known as dynamic binding or late binding. The method overriding means defining methods in parent and child class with the same name and signature but different implementation.
Overridable & Overrides keywords along with the inheritance principle.By default, a derived class inherits all members from its base class. If you want to change the behavior of the inherited member, you need to override it. That is, you can define a new implementation of the method, property, or event in the derived class.
The following modifiers are used to control how properties and methods are overridden.
| Modifier | Description |
|---|---|
| Overridable | Allows a class member to be overridden in a derived class. |
| Overrides | Overrides a virtual (overridable) member defined in the base class. |
| NotOverridable | Prevents a member from being overridden in an inheriting class. |
| MustOverride | Requires that a class member be overridden in the derived class. |
| Shadows | Hides a member inherited from a base class |
Here is the simple example of method overriding, where the Shape class contains an Overridable method CalculateArea(), which we will override in child classes.
Public Class Shape
Public Overridable Function CalculateArea() As Double
Return 0
End Function
End Class
Public Class Circle
Inherits Shape
Public Property Radius As Double
Public Sub New(ByVal rad As Double)
Radius = rad
End Sub
Public Overrides Function CalculateArea() As Double
Return (3.14) * Math.Pow(Radius, 2)
End Function
End Class
Public Class Rectangle
Inherits Shape
Public Property Height As Double
Public Property Width As Double
Public Sub New(ByVal h As Double, ByVal w As Double)
Height = h
Width = w
End Sub
Public Overrides Function CalculateArea() As Double
Return Height * Width
End Function
End Class
As you can see, we have two child classes Circle and Rectangle, and both classes override the CalculateArea() method with their implementation by calculating the area of circle and rectangle respectively.
Now we can create Shape, Circle, and Rectangle objects and assign them to Shape instances.
Public Sub MethodOverridingExample()
Dim shape As Shape = New Shape()
Dim circle As Shape = New Circle(3.0)
Dim rectangle As Shape = New Rectangle(3.0, 4.0)
Console.WriteLine("The area of the shape is " & shape.CalculateArea())
Console.WriteLine("The area of the circle is " & circle.CalculateArea())
Console.WriteLine("The area of the rectangle is " & rectangle.CalculateArea())
End Sub
You can see that both objects can call the CalculateArea() but the right version of the CalculateArea() method is not being determined at compile time but determined at runtime.
Let's run the above code, and you will see the following output.
The area of the shape is 0
The area of the circle is 28.26
The area of the rectangle is 12
All the examples related to the polymorphism are available in the Polymorphism.cs file of the source code. Download the source code and try out all the examples for better understandings.