Can two Java methods have same name with different return types? [duplicate]

Answer 1

According the JLS, you cannot however due to a feature/bug in the Java 6/7 compiler (Oracle's JDK, OpenJDK, IBM's JDK) you can have different return types for the same method signature if you use generics.

public class Main {
    public static void main(String... args) {
        Main.print();
        Main.print();
        Main.print();
        Main.print();
    }

    public static  int print() {
        System.out.println("here - Integer");
        return 0;
    }
    public static  short print() {
        System.out.println("here - Short");
        return 0;
    }
    public static  byte print() {
        System.out.println("here - Byte");
        return 0;
    }
    public static  void print() {
        System.out.println("here - Void");
    }
}

Prints

here - Integer
here - Short
here - Byte
here - Void

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