Polymorphism

Function overloading

Function overloading allows you to define multiple function signatures for the same function name, each with different parameter types and return type. When you call an overloaded function, TypeScript uses the provided arguments to determine the correct function signature:

function makeGreeting(name: string): string;
function makeGreeting(names: string[]): string[];

function makeGreeting(person: unknown): unknown {
    if (typeof person === 'string') {
        return `Hi ${person}!`;
    } else if (Array.isArray(person)) {
        return person.map(name => `Hi, ${name}!`);
    }
    throw new Error('Unable to greet');
}

makeGreeting('Simon');
makeGreeting(['Simone', 'John']);

Method overloading

Method overloading allows a class to have multiple methods with the same name but different parameter types or a different number of parameters. This allows us to call a method in different ways based on the arguments passed.

class MyClass {
    add(a: number, b: number): number; // Overload signature 1
    add(a: string, b: string): string; // Overload signature 2

    add(a: number | string, b: number | string): number | string {
        if (typeof a === 'number' && typeof b === 'number') {
            return a + b;
        }
        if (typeof a === 'string' && typeof b === 'string') {
            return a.concat(b);
        }
        throw new Error('Invalid arguments');
    }
}

const r = new MyClass();
console.log(r.add(10, 5)); // Logs 15