Method Overloading with different return type [duplicate]

Answer 1

Check this.. You can't have method with same signature and just different return type. Recommended is mentioned in this question.

C# Overload return type - recommended approach

Answer 2

Others already explained the situation. I only would like to add this: You can do what you have in mind by using a generic type parameter:

public T Bar<T>(int a) {
   // code
}

And call it like this:

int i = Bar<int>(42);
string s = Bar<string>(42);

The problem is that it is often difficult to do something meaningful with a generic type, e.g. you cannot apply arithmetic operations to it. Sometimes generic type constraints can help.

Answer 3

This is logically impossible. Consider the following call:

object o = Bar(42);

or even

var o = Bar(42);

How would the compiler know which method to call?

Edit: Now that I understand what you're actually asking, I think overloading by meaningless parameters is bad practice, and diminished readability, it is much preferable to distinguish by method name:

 string BarToStr()
 {

 }

 int BarToInt()
 {

 }

Answer 4

C# does not allow it.

C# on the other hand does not support method resolution based on the return type; this was a conscious decision by the language designers not to expose the feature of the CLR which allows it. There's no technical reason why they couldn't have done, they just felt it better not to. Because the return value is not used for method selection a C# method signature does not include it.

Answer 5

The C# specification (section 10.6) states that overloaded members may not differ by only return type and as per http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229029.aspx

As per your question regarding creating parameters simply to support differing return types? I personally believe that is a terrible solution to the problem. Code maintenance will become difficult and unused parameters are a definite code smell. Does the method really need to be overloaded in that case? Or does it belong in that class? Should something else be created to convert from one return type to another? All things you should ask to derive a more idiomatic solution.

Answer 6

You can't create method with same name, same number and types of parameters.

For more details refer this link.