Method overload resolution in java

Question

Here is what I know about overload resolution in java:

---

The process of compiler trying to resolve the method call from given overloaded method

Answer 1

In Java, resolving methods in case of method overloading is done with the following precedence:

1. Widening
2. Auto-boxing
3. Var-args

The java compiler thinks that widening a primitive parameter is more desirable than performing an auto-boxing operation.

In other words, as auto-boxing was introduced in Java 5, the compiler chooses the older style(widening) before it chooses the newer style(auto-boxing), keeping existing code more robust. Same is with var-args.

In your 1st code snippet, widening of reference variable occurs i.e, Integer to Object rather than un-boxing i.e, Integer to int. And in your 2nd snippet, widening cannot happen from Integer to String so unboxing happens.

Consider the below program which proves all the above statements:

class MethodOverloading {

    static void go(Long x) {
        System.out.print("Long ");
    }

    static void go(double x) {
        System.out.print("double ");
    }

    static void go(Double x) {
        System.out.print("Double ");
    }

    static void go(int x, int y) {
        System.out.print("int,int ");
    }

    static void go(byte... x) {
        System.out.print("byte... ");
    }

    static void go(Long x, Long y) {
        System.out.print("Long,Long ");
    }

    static void go(long... x) {
        System.out.print("long... ");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        byte b = 5;
        short s = 5;
        long l = 5;
        float f = 5.0f;
        // widening beats autoboxing
        go(b);
        go(s);
        go(l);
        go(f);
        // widening beats var-args
        go(b, b);
        // auto-boxing beats var-args
        go(l, l);
    }
}

The output is:

double double double double int,int Long,Long

Just for reference, here is my blog on method overloading in Java.

P.S: My answer is a modified version of an example given in SCJP.