Polymorphism

A requesthandling mechanism that selects a method based on the type of target object. This allows the specification of one request that can result in invocation of different methods depending on the type of the target object. Most objectoriented languages support the selection of the appropriate method based on the class of the object (classical polymorphism). A few languages or systems support characteristics of the object, including values and userdefined defaults (generalized polymorphism). Having many forms. In the context of object-oriented programming terminology and concepts, the characteristic of an object to provide different behaviors based on the same message and methods owing to variances in external conditions.