What are and how to use function overloading

Function overloading is a mechanism used in most programming languages to allow the same function to have different versions with different parameters.

In this way, the same function can be used in different contexts and with different types of data.

With function overloading, we can define two or more functions with the same name, as long as they have different types of parameters.

This means that they can be,

• Different number of functions
• Different types of parameters

Examples of function overloading

Below are examples of function overloading in different programming languages:

public int Add(int x, int y)
{
	return x + y;
}

public int Add(int x, int y, int z)
{
	return x + y + z;
}

function Add(x, y) {
  console.log("Hello, " + name);
}

function Add(x, y, z) {
  console.log("Hello, " + firstName + " " + lastName);
}

def Add(x, y):
    return x + y

def Add(x, y, z):
    return x + y + z

In this example, we have two versions of the Add function. The first version takes two int parameters and returns their sum. The second version takes three int parameters and returns the sum of all three.

Best practices when using function overloading Tips

Although function overloading can be very useful in certain situations, it is important to keep in mind some best practices when using it:

• Overloaded functions must be related to each other. It is not advisable to abuse function overloading and create functions with the same name but with very different functionalities.

• Function overloading only allows distinguishing between different versions of the function by the received parameters, not by the return function.

• If too many parameters are needed for a function, it is better to use a structure as a parameter instead of overloading the function with too many parameters. In general, it is recommended not to overload a function with more than 3 or 4 parameters.