UML SEMINAR

POLYMORPHIS
M
PRESENTED BY
AJITH MOHANAN
◦ POLYMORPHISM THE WORD MEANS MANY & FORM THE PROPERTY OF POLYMORPHISM MEANS TAKING MANY
FORMS.
◦ POLYMORPHISM IS A FACILITY BY WHICH A SINGLE OPERATION OR ATTRIBUTE NAME IS DEFINED UPON MORE THAN
ONE CLASS AND TAKE UPON DIFFERENT IMPLEMENTATIONS.
◦ CONSIDER THE EXAMPLE OF A CLASS NAMED POLYGON WHICH REPRESENTS 2-D SHAPE.

◦ WE DEFINE AN OPERATION NAMED (get Area) ON THE CLASS POLYGON WHICH RETURNS THE VALUE OF OBJECT
AREA.
◦ THE OPERATION get Area WHICH REQUIRES SOPHISTICATED ALGORITHMS TO HANDLE ODDLY SHAPED POLYGONS IN
THE ABOVE FIG.
◦ WE ADD SOME MORE CLASSES SAY CLASS RECTANGLE,CLASS TRIANGLE,CLASS HEXAGON.
◦ WHICH ARE SUBCLASSES OF THE CLASS POLYGON.
 POLYGON

AREA

get Area

TRIANGLE RECTANGLE HEXAGON

get Area get Area get Area

◦ THE CLASSES TRIANGLE RECTANGLE & HEXAGON HAS THE FUNCTION NAMED get Area WHICH ACCOMPLISHES
THE SAME FUNCTION AS THE ABOVE.
◦ THE CODE WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR THE OPERATION get Area BECAUSE THE EQUATION TO FIND THE AREA OF
RECTANGLE IS (LENGTH*BREADTH) WHEREAS OF AREA OF TRIANGLE IS( ½ B*H).
◦ CONSIDER A CODE WHICH SENDS A MESSAGE TO THE OBJECT REFFERD BY TWODSHAPE.
◦ twoDshape: get Area;
◦ WE MAY NOT KNOW WHICH ALGORITHM IS TO BE EXECUTED BECAUSE WE MAY NOT KNOW TO WHICH CLASS
THE twoDshape BELONGS.
◦ twoDshape IS AN INSTANCE OF THE CLASS TRIANGLE THE OPERATION AREA OF TRIANGLE WILL BE EXECUTED.
◦ twoDshape IS AN INSTANCE OF THE CLASS RECTANGLE THE OPERATION AREA OF RECTANGLE WILL BE
EXECUTED.
◦ twoDshape IS AN INSTANCE OF THE CLASS HEXAGON THE OPERATION AREA OF HEXAGON WILL BE EXECUTED.
◦ twoDshape IS AN INSTANCE OF CLASS C WHICH ISN’T OF ANY CLASSES NO OPERATION WILL BE INVOKED SO THE
RESULT WILL BE A COMPILE TIME ERROR OR RUNTIME ERROR.
◦ DYNAMIC BINDING
IT IS A TECHNIQUE BY WHICH THE EXACT PIECE OF CODE TO BE EXECUTED IS DETERMINED ONLY AT RUNTIME.
◦ OVERRIDING
THE OVERRIDING IS A REDEFNITION OF A METHOD DEFINED ON CLASS C IN ONE OF THE CLASS C SUBCLASSES.
◦ OVERLOADING
OVERLOADIND OF A NAME OR SYMBOL OCCURS WHEN SEVERAL OPERATIONS DEFINED ON THE SAME CLASS HAVE
THAT NAME OR SYMBOL WE SAY IT OVERLOADED.