I have read a book and it says I can override a method if it has the same signature. according to the book the signature of a method is Method_Name + Parameters passed.
as per the book, i can override a method which has different return types. Is it actually possible to override a method with different return type in Java? because i have done a some search on the net i found people saying that to override a method the return type should be same as well.
according to the book it also says the java will throw a compile error when we try to overload a method with same method name and parameters but different return types since the signature means only the method name and parameters. If this is true, we should be able to override a method with different return type.
Please help me to understand this. Thanks in advance.
You can return a different type, as long as it’s compatible with the return type of the overridden method. Compatible means: it’s a subclass, sub-interface, or implementation of the class or interface returned by the overridden method.
And that’s logical. If a method returns an Animal, and your derived class returns a Cow, you’re not breaking the contract of the superclass method, since a Cow is an Animal. If the derived class returns a Banana, that isn’t correct anymore, since a Banana is not an Animal.