Can overridden methods differ in return type?

Question

Can overridden methods have different return types?

Answer 1

Overriding and Return Types, and Covariant Returns
the subclass must define a method that matches the inherited version exactly. Or, as of Java 5, you're allowed to change the return type in the

sample code

                                                                                                            class Alpha {
          Alpha doStuff(char c) {
                  return new Alpha();
              }
           }
             class Beta extends Alpha {
                    Beta doStuff(char c) { // legal override in Java 1.5
                    return new Beta();
                    }
             } } 

As of Java 5, this code will compile. If you were to attempt to compile this code with a 1.4 compiler will say attempting to use incompatible return type – sandeep1987 1 min ago

Answer 2

The other answers are all correct, but surprisingly all leaving out the theoretical aspect here: return types can be different, but they can only restrict the type used in the super class because of the Liskov Substitution Principle.

It is super simple: when you have "client" code that calls some method:

int foo = someBar.bar();

then the above has to work (and return something that is an int no matter which implementation of bar() is invoked).

Meaning: if there is a Bar subclass that overrides bar() then you still have to return something that doesn't break "caller code".

In other words: assume that the base bar() is supposed to return int. Then a subclass could return short - but not long because callers will be fine dealing with a short value, but not a long!

Answer 3

Yes it may differ but their are some limitations.

Before Java 5.0, when you override a method, both parameters and return type must match exactly. In Java 5.0, it introduces a new facility called covariant return type. You can override a method with the same signature but returns a subclass of the object returned. In another words, a method in a subclass can return an object whose type is a subclass of the type returned by the method with the same signature in the superclass.