Can you define polymorphism in OOP terms?

Polymorphism in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) allows objects of different types to be treated as objects of a common type.

Polymorphism, a Greek word meaning 'many shapes', is one of the four fundamental principles of OOP, alongside encapsulation, inheritance, and abstraction. It is a feature that allows one interface to be used for a general class of actions. The specific action is determined by the exact nature of the situation. In essence, polymorphism allows objects to behave in multiple ways depending on their data type or class.

Consider a simple example of a 'Shape' class in a graphics program. This class might have a method called 'draw'. However, the process of drawing a circle is different from drawing a rectangle. Here, polymorphism comes into play. Both 'Circle' and 'Rectangle' classes would inherit from the 'Shape' class and each would implement the 'draw' method in a different way. But when a user selects a shape to draw, the program can simply call the 'draw' method on whatever shape has been selected. This is possible because, through polymorphism, the program treats the circle and rectangle as the same type of object (a Shape).

Polymorphism can be achieved in two ways: method overloading and method overriding. Method overloading is a feature that allows a class to have two or more methods having the same name but different in parameters. On the other hand, method overriding is a feature that allows a subclass or child class to provide a specific implementation of a method that is already provided by one of its parent classes or superclasses.

In conclusion, polymorphism in OOP provides flexibility while coding by allowing the same method or operator to be used for different types, leading to simpler, more intuitive, and cleaner code. It also improves the reusability of the code and makes the program more dynamic.