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Polymorphism (computer science) - Wikiwand

Ad hoc polymorphism

Christopher Strachey chose the term ad hoc polymorphism to refer to polymorphic functions that can be applied to arguments of different types, but that behave differently depending on the type of the argument to which they are applied (also known as function overloading or operator overloading).[5] The term "ad hoc" in this context is not pejorative: instead, it means that this form of polymorphism is not a fundamental feature of the type system. In the Java example below, the add functions seem to work generically over two types (integer and string) when looking at the invocations, but are considered to be two entirely distinct functions by the compiler for all intents and purposes:

class AdHocPolymorphic {
    public String add(int x, int y) {
        return "Sum: " + (x + y);
    }
    public String add(String name) {
        return "Added " + name;
    }
}
public class Adhoc {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        AdHocPolymorphic poly = new AdHocPolymorphic();
        System.out.println(poly.add(1,2));   // prints "Sum: 3"
        System.out.println(poly.add("Jay")); // prints "Added Jay"
    }
}

In dynamically typed languages the situation can be more complex as the correct function that needs to be invoked might only be determinable at run time.

Implicit type conversion has also been defined as a form of polymorphism, referred to as "coercion polymorphism".[1][6]

Parametric polymorphism

Parametric polymorphism allows a function or a data type to be written generically, so that it can handle values uniformly without depending on their type.[7] Parametric polymorphism is a way to make a language more expressive while still maintaining full static type safety.

The concept of parametric polymorphism applies to both data types and functions. A function that can evaluate to or be applied to values of different types is known as a polymorphic function. A data type that can appear to be of a generalized type (e.g., a list with elements of arbitrary type) is designated polymorphic data type like the generalized type from which such specializations are made.

Parametric polymorphism is ubiquitous in functional programming, where it is often simply referred to as "polymorphism". The next example in Haskell shows a parameterized list data type and two parametrically polymorphic functions on them:

data List a = Nil | Cons a (List a)
length :: List a -> Integer
length Nil         = 0
length (Cons x xs) = 1 + length xs
map :: (a -> b) -> List a -> List b
map f Nil         = Nil
map f (Cons x xs) = Cons (f x) (map f xs)

Parametric polymorphism is also available in several object-oriented languages. For instance, templates in C++ and D, or under the name generics in C#, Delphi, Java, and Go:

class List<T> {
    class Node<T> {
        T elem;
        Node<T> next;
    }
    Node<T> head;
    int length() { ... }
}
List<B> map(Func<A, B> f, List<A> xs) {
    ...
}

John C. Reynolds (and later Jean-Yves Girard) formally developed this notion of polymorphism as an extension to lambda calculus (called the polymorphic lambda calculus or System F). Any parametrically polymorphic function is necessarily restricted in what it can do, working on the shape of the data instead of its value, leading to the concept of parametricity.

Subtyping

Some languages employ the idea of subtyping (also called subtype polymorphism or inclusion polymorphism) to restrict the range of types that can be used in a particular case of polymorphism. In these languages, subtyping allows a function to be written to take an object of a certain type T, but also work correctly, if passed an object that belongs to a type S that is a subtype of T (according to the Liskov substitution principle). This type relation is sometimes written S <: T. Conversely, T is said to be a supertype of S, written T :> S. Subtype polymorphism is usually resolved dynamically (see below).

In the following Java example cats and dogs are made subtypes of pets. The procedure letsHear() accepts a pet, but will also work correctly if a subtype is passed to it:

abstract class Pet {
    abstract String speak();
}
class Cat extends Pet {
    String speak() {
        return "Meow!";
    }
}
class Dog extends Pet {
    String speak() {
        return "Woof!";
    }
}
static void letsHear(final Pet pet) {
    println(pet.speak());
}
static void main(String[] args) {
    letsHear(new Cat());
    letsHear(new Dog());
}

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In another example, if Number, Rational, and Integer are types such that Number :> Rational and Number :> Integer (Rational and Integer as subtypes of a type Number that is a supertype of them), a function written to take a Number will work equally well when passed an Integer or Rational as when passed a Number. The actual type of the object can be hidden from clients into a black box, and accessed via object identity. If the Number type is abstract, it may not even be possible to get your hands on an object whose most-derived type is Number (see abstract data type, abstract class). This particular kind of type hierarchy is known, especially in the context of the Scheme language, as a numerical tower, and usually contains many more types.

Object-oriented programming languages offer subtype polymorphism using subclassing (also known as inheritance). In typical implementations, each class contains what is called a virtual table (shortly called vtable) — a table of functions that implement the polymorphic part of the class interface—and each object contains a pointer to the vtable of its class, which is then consulted whenever a polymorphic method is called. This mechanism is an example of:

  • late binding, because virtual function calls are not bound until the time of invocation;
  • single dispatch (i.e., single-argument polymorphism), because virtual function calls are bound simply by looking through the vtable provided by the first argument (the this object), so the runtime types of the other arguments are completely irrelevant.

The same goes for most other popular object systems. Some, however, such as Common Lisp Object System, provide multiple dispatch, under which method calls are polymorphic in all arguments.

The interaction between parametric polymorphism and subtyping leads to the concepts of variance and bounded quantification.

Row polymorphism

Row polymorphism[8] is a similar, but distinct concept from subtyping. It deals with structural types. It allows the usage of all values whose types have certain properties, without losing the remaining type information.

Polytypism

A related concept is polytypism (or data type genericity). A polytypic function is more general than polymorphic, and in such a function, "though one can provide fixed ad hoc cases for specific data types, an ad hoc combinator is absent".[9]

Rank polymorphism

Rank polymorphism is one of the defining features of the array programming languages, like APL. The essence of the rank-polymorphic programming model is implicitly treating all operations as aggregate operations, usable on arrays with arbitrarily many dimensions,[10] which is to say that rank polymorphism allows functions to be defined to operate on arrays of any shape and size.