What is function overloading and overriding in php?

Question

In PHP, what do you mean by function overloading and function overriding. and what is the difference between both of them? couldn't figure out what is the difference between them.

Answer 1

Overloading is defining functions that have similar signatures, yet have different parameters. Overriding is only pertinent to derived classes, where the parent class has defined a method and the derived class wishes to override that method.

In PHP, you can only overload methods using the magic method __call.

An example of overriding:

<?php

class Foo {
   function myFoo() {
      return "Foo";
   }
}

class Bar extends Foo {
   function myFoo() {
      return "Bar";
   }
}

$foo = new Foo;
$bar = new Bar;
echo($foo->myFoo()); //"Foo"
echo($bar->myFoo()); //"Bar"
?>

Answer 2

Function overloading is not supported by PHP. It occurs when you define the same function name twice (or more) using different set of parameters. For example:

class Addition {
  function compute($first, $second) {
    return $first+$second;
  }

  function compute($first, $second, $third) {
    return $first+$second+$third;
  }
}

In the example above, the function compute is overloaded with two different parameter signatures. *This is not yet supported in PHP. An alternative is to use optional arguments:

class Addition {
  function compute($first, $second, $third = 0) {
    return $first+$second+$third;
  }
}

---

Function overriding occurs when you extend a class and rewrite a function which existed in the parent class:

class Substraction extends Addition {
  function compute($first, $second, $third = 0) {
    return $first-$second-$third;
  }
}

For example, compute overrides the behavior set forth in Addition.

Answer 3

Strictly speaking, there's no difference, since you cannot do either :)

Function overriding could have been done with a PHP extension like APD, but it's deprecated and afaik last version was unusable.

Function overloading in PHP cannot be done due to dynamic typing, ie, in PHP you don't "define" variables to be a particular type. Example:

$a=1;
$a='1';
$a=true;
$a=doSomething();

Each variable is of a different type, yet you can know the type before execution (see the 4th one). As a comparison, other languages use:

int a=1;
String s="1";
bool a=true;
something a=doSomething();

In the last example, you must forcefully set the variable's type (as an example, I used data type "something").

---

Another "issue" why function overloading is not possible in PHP: PHP has a function called func_get_args(), which returns an array of current arguments, now consider the following code:

function hello($a){
  print_r(func_get_args());
}

function hello($a,$a){
  print_r(func_get_args());
}

hello('a');
hello('a','b');

Considering both functions accept any amount of arguments, which one should the compiler choose?

---

Finally, I'd like to point out why the above replies are partially wrong; function overloading/overriding is NOT equal to method overloading/overriding.

Where a method is like a function but specific to a class, in which case, PHP does allow overriding in classes, but again no overloading, due to language semantics.

To conclude, languages like Javascript allow overriding (but again, no overloading), however they may also show the difference between overriding a user function and a method:

/// Function Overriding ///

function a(){
   alert('a');
}
a=function(){
   alert('b');
}

a(); // shows popup with 'b'


/// Method Overriding ///

var a={
  "a":function(){
    alert('a');
  }
}
a.a=function(){
   alert('b');
}

a.a(); // shows popup with 'b'

Answer 4

Overloading Example

class overload {
    public $name;
    public function __construct($agr) {
        $this->name = $agr;
    }
    public function __call($methodname, $agrument) {
         if($methodname == 'sum2') {

          if(count($agrument) == 2) {
              $this->sum($agrument[0], $agrument[1]);
          }
          if(count($agrument) == 3) {

              echo $this->sum1($agrument[0], $agrument[1], $agrument[2]);
          }
        }
    }
    public function sum($a, $b) {
        return $a + $b;
    }
    public function sum1($a,$b,$c) {

        return $a + $b + $c;
    }
}
$object = new overload('Sum');
echo $object->sum2(1,2,3);

Answer 5

Although overloading paradigm is not fully supported by PHP the same (or very similar) effect can be achieved with default parameter(s) (as somebody mentioned before).

If you define your function like this:

function f($p=0)
{
  if($p)
  {
    //implement functionality #1 here
  }
  else
  {
    //implement functionality #2 here
  }
}

When you call this function like:

f();

you'll get one functionality (#1), but if you call it with parameter like:

f(1);

you'll get another functionality (#2). That's the effect of overloading - different functionality depending on function's input parameter(s).

I know, somebody will ask now what functionality one will get if he/she calls this function as f(0).

Answer 6

Method overloading occurs when two or more methods with same method name but different number of parameters in single class. PHP does not support method overloading. Method overriding means two methods with same method name and same number of parameters in two different classes means parent class and child class.

Answer 7

I would like to point out over here that Overloading in PHP has a completely different meaning as compared to other programming languages. A lot of people have said that overloading isnt supported in PHP and by the conventional definition of overloading, yes that functionality isnt explicitly available.

However, the correct definition of overloading in PHP is completely different.

In PHP overloading refers to dynamically creating properties and methods using magic methods like __set() and __get(). These overloading methods are invoked when interacting with methods or properties that are not accessible or not declared.

Here is a link from the PHP manual : http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.overloading.php

Answer 8

Overloading: In Real world, overloading means assigning some extra stuff to someone. As as in real world Overloading in PHP means calling extra functions. In other way You can say it have slimier function with different parameter.In PHP you can use overloading with magic functions e.g. __get, __set, __call etc.

Example of Overloading:

class Shape {
   const Pi = 3.142 ;  // constant value
  function __call($functionname, $argument){
    if($functionname == 'area')
    switch(count($argument)){
        case 0 : return 0 ;
        case 1 : return self::Pi * $argument[0] ; // 3.14 * 5
        case 2 : return $argument[0] * $argument[1];  // 5 * 10
    }

  }

 }
 $circle = new Shape();`enter code here`
 echo "Area of circle:".$circle->area()."</br>"; // display the area of circle Output 0
 echo "Area of circle:".$circle->area(5)."</br>"; // display the area of circle
 $rect = new Shape();
 echo "Area of rectangle:".$rect->area(5,10); // display area of rectangle

Overriding : In object oriented programming overriding is to replace parent method in child class.In overriding you can re-declare parent class method in child class. So, basically the purpose of overriding is to change the behavior of your parent class method.

Example of overriding :

class parent_class
{

  public function text()    //text() is a parent class method
  {
    echo "Hello!! everyone I am parent class text method"."</br>";
  }
  public function test()   
  {
    echo "Hello!! I am second method of parent class"."</br>";
  }

}

class child extends parent_class
{
  public function text()     // Text() parent class method which is override by child 
  class
  {
    echo "Hello!! Everyone i am child class";
  }

 }

 $obj= new parent_class();
 $obj->text();            // display the parent class method echo
 $obj= new parent_class();
 $obj->test();
 $obj= new child();
 $obj->text(); // display the child class method echo

Answer 9

There are some differences between Function overloading & overriding though both contains the same function name.In overloading ,between the same name functions contain different type of argument or return type;Such as: "function add (int a,int b)" & "function add(float a,float b); Here the add() function is overloaded. In the case of overriding both the argument and function name are same.It generally found in inheritance or in traits.We have to follow some tactics to introduce, what function will execute now. So In overriding the programmer follows some tactics to execute the desired function where in the overloading the program can automatically identify the desired function...Thanks!

Answer 10

Overloading: Declaring a function multiple times with a different set of parameters like this:

<?php

function foo($a) {
    return $a;
}

function foo($a, $b) {
    return $a + $b;
}

echo foo(5); // Prints "5"
echo foo(5, 2); // Prints "7"
?>

Overriding: Replacing the parent class's method(s) with a new method by redeclaring it like this:

<?php

class foo {
    function new($args) {
        // Do something.
    }
}

class bar extends foo {
    function new($args) {
        // Do something different.
    }
}

?>

Answer 11

PHP 5.x.x does not support overloading this is why PHP is not fully OOP.