What is polymorphism?

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. Polymorphism can be implemented in three ways:

1. Method overloading
2. Method overriding
3. Operator overloading

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.
• Inclusion polymorphism: Various objects in an inheritance chain define methods with the same name, but with different arguments. On the basis of where the current object fits in the inheritance hierarchy, it determines which version of a method should be executed. When the object is a descendant, it executes the descendent version of the method overriding the ancestor version.

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