Is function overloading possible in Objective C?

Question

Is function overloading possible in Objective C ?
Well,Most of the programmers says no,
But it looks like possible,
for example:

-(int)AddMethod:(int)X :(int)Y
{
    return X + Y;
}
-(int)AddMethod:(int)X
{
    return X;
}

to call 1st one write [self AddMethod :3];
to call last one write [self AddMethod: 3 :4];

Answer 1

No, it is not, mostly because Objective-C doesn't use functions, it uses methods.

Method overloading, on the other hand, is possible. Sort of.

Consider, if you will, a class with a method take an argument on the form of either an NSString * or a const char *:

@interface SomeClass : NSObject {

}

- (void)doThingWithString:(NSString *)string;
- (void)doThingWithBytes:(const char *)bytes;

@end

While the method itself won't go around choosing the proper method with a given input; one could still say that doThing: was overloaded, at least in the sense that the two methods taking a different parameter to achieve the same functionality.

Answer 2

Method overloading is not possible in Objective-C. However, your example actually will work because you have created two different methods with different selectors: -AddMethod:: and AddMethod:. There is a colon for each interleaved parameter. It's normal to put some text in also e.g. -addMethodX:Y: but you don't have to.