Method (computer Programming) - Overridden Methods

Overridden methods are those that are redefined in a subclass and hide methods of a superclass. The new method can use the previous definition though a special mechanism, for example, the super keyword in Smalltalk and Java. Some people confuse overriding with overloaded methods, but they are really quite different; the main difference is that the choice of method from a set of overriding methods is made according to the class of the receiver of the method request, whereas the name of an overloaded method is constructed according to the static types of the arguments to the method request. Another difference is that an overriding method must be declared in a subclass of the class that declared the overridden method, while several overloadings of a method name can be declared in the same class. Look at following example in Java:

public class class1 { int f(int x) { return x+3; } } public class class2 extends class1 { @Override int f(int x) //overriding { return x*x; } int f(int x,int y) //overloading { return x*y; } }