Overridighet

Overridighet is a term used in some programming contexts, particularly in object-oriented programming, to describe a situation where a derived class (subclass) provides a specific implementation for a method that is already defined in its base class (superclass). This allows the subclass to customize or extend the behavior of the inherited method without altering the original code in the superclass. The term itself highlights the action of "overriding" the parent's definition with a new one.

When a method is overridden, the version of the method called depends on the type of the object at runtime. If an object is an instance of the subclass, its overridden version of the method will be executed. If the object is an instance of the superclass, the original method from the superclass will be called. This mechanism is fundamental to achieving polymorphism, enabling objects of different classes to respond to the same method call in their own distinct ways.

Overriding is distinct from overloading. Method overloading involves defining multiple methods with the same name but different parameter lists within the same class. Overriding, on the other hand, involves a method in a subclass having the same name, return type, and parameter list as a method in its superclass. The primary purpose of overriding is to adapt inherited functionality, while overloading is used to provide different ways to perform a similar operation based on the input provided.