What is polymorphism?

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What is polymorphism?

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Polymorphism is a technique of defining methods in which different objects respond appropriately to the same method name. Polymorphism provides a consistent interface throughout the application and within all objects. For example, many methods in PowerBuilder are polymorphic, such as SetFocus().

If the SetFocus() method is called for a CommandButton, the method displays a rectangle around the text.

Whereas, if the SetFocus() method is called for a DropDownListBox, the method highlights the edit box of the control.

In this example, the action of the SetFocus() method is different for each control.

There are two categories of polymorphic behavior:

Operational polymorphism: Separate, unrelated objects define methods with the same name. Each method performs the appropriate processing for its object class.

Inclusional polymorphism: Various objects in an inheritance chain define methods with the same name but with different arguments. With inclusional polymorphism, PowerBuilder determines which version of a method should be executed based on where the current object fits in the inheritance hierarchy. When the object is a descendant, PowerBuilder executes the descendent version of the method overriding the ancestor version.

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What is polymorphism?

What is polymorphism?

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