What is the real significance(use) of polymorphism

Question

I am new to OOP. Though I understand what polymorphism is, but I can\'t get the real use of it. I can have functions with different name. Why should I try to implement polym

Answer 1

One of the most significant benefit that you get from polymorphic operations is ability to expand. You can use same operations and not changing existing interfaces and implementations only because you faced necessity for some new stuff.

All that we want from polymorphism - is simplify our design decision and make our design more extensible and elegant. You should also draw attention to Open-Closed Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open/closed_principle) and for SOLID (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_%28Object_Oriented_Design%29) that can help you to understand key OO principles.

P.S. I think you are talking about "Dynamic polymorphism" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_polymorphism), because there are such thing like "Static polymorphism" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_metaprogramming#Static_polymorphism).