What is polymorphism, what is it for, and how is it used?

Question

What is polymorphism, what is it for, and how is it used?

Answer 1

Polymorphism is when you can treat an object as a generic version of something, but when you access it, the code determines which exact type it is and calls the associated code.

Here is an example in C#. Create four classes within a console application:

public abstract class Vehicle
{
    public abstract int Wheels;
}

public class Bicycle : Vehicle
{
    public override int Wheels()
    {
        return 2;
    }
}

public class Car : Vehicle
{
    public override int Wheels()
    {
        return 4;
    }
}

public class Truck : Vehicle
{
    public override int Wheels()
    {
        return 18;
    }
}

Now create the following in the Main() of the module for the console application:

public void Main()
{
    List vehicles = new List();

    vehicles.Add(new Bicycle());
    vehicles.Add(new Car());
    vehicles.Add(new Truck());

    foreach (Vehicle v in vehicles)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(
            string.Format("A {0} has {1} wheels.",
                v.GetType().Name, v.Wheels));
    }
}

In this example, we create a list of the base class Vehicle, which does not know about how many wheels each of its sub-classes has, but does know that each sub-class is responsible for knowing how many wheels it has.

We then add a Bicycle, Car and Truck to the list.

Next, we can loop through each Vehicle in the list, and treat them all identically, however when we access each Vehicles 'Wheels' property, the Vehicle class delegates the execution of that code to the relevant sub-class.

This code is said to be polymorphic, as the exact code which is executed is determined by the sub-class being referenced at runtime.

I hope that this helps you.