RESOLUTION OF STATIC OVERLOADING

Some languages permit overloading: different functions of the same name but different argument types. The compiler must choose between function bodies based on the types of the actual parameters. This is sometimes known as ad hoc polymorphism, as opposed to the parametric polymorphism described in the previous sections. Static overloading is not difficult to implement. When processing the declaration of an overloaded function f, the new binding b_n must not hide the old definitions b₁,…, b_n−1. Instead, the new binding maps f to a list of different implementations, f ↦ [b₁,…, b_n]. Depending on the language semantics, it may be necessary to give an error message if b_n has identical parameter types to one of the b_i. Then, when looking up f in a place where it is called with actual parameters, the types of the actual parameters will determine which of the bindings b_i should be used.

Some languages allow functions of identical argument types (but different result type) to be overloaded; some languages allow forms of dynamic overloading; see the Further Reading section.