21.5. Overloading Generic Methods

A generic method may be overloaded. A class can provide two or more generic methods that specify the same method name but different method parameters. For example, generic method printArray of Fig. 21.3 could be overloaded with another printArray generic method with the additional parameters lowSubscript and highSubscript to specify the portion of the array to output (see Exercise 21.5).

A generic method can also be overloaded by nongeneric methods. When the compiler encounters a method call, it searches for the method declaration that most precisely matches the method name and the argument types specified in the call. For example, generic method printArray of Fig. 21.3 could be overloaded with a version that’s specific to Strings, which outputs the Strings in neat, tabular format (see Exercise 21.6).