Polymorphism

What is Polymorphism?

Polymorphism means "many forms." In Python, this allows different classes to have methods with the same name, and you can use these objects interchangeably.

Basic Example

class Bird:
    def make_sound(self):
        print("Chirp")

class Dog:
    def make_sound(self):
        print("Woof")

def animal_sound(animal):
    animal.make_sound()

bird = Bird()
dog = Dog()
animal_sound(bird)  # Output: Chirp
animal_sound(dog)   # Output: Woof

Real World Use Cases

• Payment Processing: A function can process CreditCard, PayPal, or BankTransfer objects, as long as they implement a pay() method.

• Drawing Software: Different shapes (Circle, Rectangle, Triangle) have a draw() method, so a loop can call draw on all shapes without knowing their specific types.

• File Handling: Different file readers (PDFReader, WordReader) can have a read() method, making it easy to process files of various types with the same interface.

Key Points

• Write code that works with objects of different types, as long as they have the required method.

• Makes code flexible and extensible.

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