What is polymorphism, what is it for, and how is i

Question

I was watching a Google Tech Talks video, and they frequently referred to polymorphism.

What is polymorphism, what is it for, and how is it used?

Answer 1

Let's use an analogy. For a given musical script every musician which plays it gives her own touch in the interpretation.

Musician can be abstracted with interfaces, genre to which musician belongs can be an abstrac class which defines some global rules of interpretation and every musician who plays can be modeled with a concrete class.

If you are a listener of the musical work, you have a reference to the script e.g. Bach's 'Fuga and Tocata' and every musician who performs it does it polymorphicaly in her own way.

This is just an example of a possible design (in Java):

public interface Musician {
  public void play(Work work);
}

public interface Work {
  public String getScript();
}

public class FugaAndToccata implements Work {
  public String getScript() {
    return Bach.getFugaAndToccataScript();
  }
}

public class AnnHalloway implements Musician {
  public void play(Work work) {
    // plays in her own style, strict, disciplined
    String script = work.getScript()
  }
}

public class VictorBorga implements Musician {
  public void play(Work work) {
    // goofing while playing with superb style
    String script = work.getScript()
  }
}

public class Listener {
  public void main(String[] args) {
    Musician musician;
    if (args!=null && args.length > 0 && args[0].equals("C")) {
      musician = new AnnHalloway();
    } else {
      musician = new TerryGilliam();
    }
    musician.play(new FugaAndToccata());
}

Answer 2

Usually this refers the the ability for an object of type A to behave like an object of type B. In object oriented programming this is usually achieve by inheritance. Some wikipedia links to read more:

• Polymorphism in object oriented programming
• Type polymorphism

EDIT: fixed broken links.

Answer 3

Polymorphism literally means, multiple shapes. (or many form) : Object from different classes and same name method , but workflows are different. A simple example would be:

Consider a person X.

He is only one person but he acts as many. You may ask how:

He is a son to his mother. A friend to his friends. A brother to his sister.

Answer 4

From Understanding and Applying Polymorphism in PHP, Thanks Steve Guidetti.

Polymorphism is a long word for a very simple concept.

Polymorphism describes a pattern in object oriented programming in which classes have different functionality while sharing a common interface.

The beauty of polymorphism is that the code working with the different classes does not need to know which class it is using since they’re all used the same way. A real world analogy for polymorphism is a button. Everyone knows how to use a button: you simply apply pressure to it. What a button “does,” however, depends on what it is connected to and the context in which it is used — but the result does not affect how it is used. If your boss tells you to press a button, you already have all the information needed to perform the task.

In the programming world, polymorphism is used to make applications more modular and extensible. Instead of messy conditional statements describing different courses of action, you create interchangeable objects that you select based on your needs. That is the basic goal of polymorphism.

Answer 5

I know this is an older question with a lot of good answers but I'd like to include a one sentence answer:

Treating a derived type as if it were it's base type.

There are plenty of examples above that show this in action, but I feel this is a good concise answer.

Answer 6

Polymorphism => Different execution according to instance of class, not type of reference variable.

A interface type reference variable can refer any of the class instance that implements that interface.