Question

I always thought…

• overriding means reimplementing a function (same signature) in a base class whereas
• overloading means implementing a function with same name but different signature

… and got confused because sometimes people just don’t care about the difference.

Concerning new/delete: Are they overloaded or overridden?

An idea:

• implementing new/delete operator in a Class = overload
• reimplementing global new/delete = override

Any corrections/suggestions/objections?
And feel free to tag the question “hairsplitting”…

Answer 1

For the global operator new and operator delete, it’s actually neither overloading nor overriding. A program is permitted to replace the default, implementation-provided definitions with its own definitions. The C++ standard says (§3.7.3/2):

The library provides default definitions for the global allocation and deallocation functions. Some global allocation and deallocation functions are replaceable (18.4.1). A C++ program shall provide at most one definition of a replaceable allocation or deallocation function. Any such function definition replaces the default version provided in the library (17.4.3.4).

For a class-specific operator new or operator delete, the operators are overloaded.