Thread: What is the overiding in java?

Hey! I wanted to ask that what is overiding in java? It is confusing me allot. I got the point of overloading but in case of overriding, I am unable to get what it is?
Please help!

SA.

So you know that with overloading, several methods or constructors can have the same name but take different parameters. Overriding is a method with exactly the same signature as an extended or parent class so that the derived class' method overrides the parent class' method.

The toString() method is a good example that you should have learned about. The Object class provides a toString() method, but a programmer will usually override the toString() method with his/her own version in order to present the class appropriately when printed using the default output.

To add to GragBrannon's succinct explanation, Java Inheritance gives a good rundown on method overriding by starting with inheritance, followed by defining overriding methods in a subclass, an Annotation to use when overriding a method, and finally how fields cannot be overridden in a subclass.

Another good resource is Java - Overriding, which goes into greater depth by covering the rules for method overiding. While you're at it, you might want to also go through the next page in the tutorial that links polymorphism to method overriding.

To round this off, take a look at Overriding and Hiding Methods (The Java™ Tutorials > Learning the Java Language > Interfaces and Inheritance), which covers a similar concept - method hiding - that is applicable to static methods. (You may want to skip the Interface Methods section though. This is a new feature introduced in Java 8, and it's quite confusing.)

Overriding method: same signature (same return type, list of parameters, name of method), but do slightly different task.
Overloading method: same name of method, but different list of parameters.