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Android Build an Interactive Story App (Retired) The Model-View-Controller Pattern Adding Custom Constructors

Christiaan Hendriksen
Christiaan Hendriksen
5,982 Points

Why is Page defined twice?

In Page.java it looks like Page is defined twice, once with the choice variables and once without. How does this work when the app runs, does it try the first and go to the second if it doesn't work?

1 Answer

Jeremy Faith
PLUS
Jeremy Faith
Courses Plus Student 56,696 Points

I think you are talking about overloaded methods(or Constructors). The following from Java Documentation should explain it nicely.

Typically, a method has a unique name within its class. However, a method might have the same name as other methods due to method overloading.

Overloading Methods

The Java programming language supports overloading methods, and Java can distinguish between methods with different method signatures. This means that methods within a class can have the same name if they have different parameter lists (there are some qualifications to this that will be discussed in the lesson titled "Interfaces and Inheritance").

Suppose that you have a class that can use calligraphy to draw various types of data (strings, integers, and so on) and that contains a method for drawing each data type. It is cumbersome to use a new name for each methodβ€”for example, drawString, drawInteger, drawFloat, and so on. In the Java programming language, you can use the same name for all the drawing methods but pass a different argument list to each method. Thus, the data drawing class might declare four methods named draw, each of which has a different parameter list.

public class DataArtist { ... public void draw(String s) { ... } public void draw(int i) { ... } public void draw(double f) { ... } public void draw(int i, double f) { ... } } Overloaded methods are differentiated by the number and the type of the arguments passed into the method. In the code sample, draw(String s) and draw(int i) are distinct and unique methods because they require different argument types.

You cannot declare more than one method with the same name and the same number and type of arguments, because the compiler cannot tell them apart.

The compiler does not consider return type when differentiating methods, so you cannot declare two methods with the same signature even if they have a different return type.

Christiaan Hendriksen
Christiaan Hendriksen
5,982 Points

Ah I see, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks Jeremy!