How can I use polymorphism in conditional statements?

How can I use polymorphism in conditional statements?

Polymorphism allows methods to do different things based on the object it is acting upon. In conditional statements, you can use polymorphism to call the same method on different objects, leading to different behaviors.

Can you give me an example of that?

Sure! Imagine you have a base class Animal with a method makeSound(). You can have subclasses like Dog and Cat that override makeSound(). In a conditional statement, you can check the type of animal and call makeSound(), which will behave differently depending on the object.

What if I want to use it in a switch statement?

In a switch statement, you can switch on the type of the object. For example, if you switch on animal.getType(), you can call the appropriate method for each type, leveraging polymorphism to handle each case.

Are there any performance concerns with using polymorphism?

Generally, polymorphism is efficient, but excessive use of dynamic dispatch can introduce overhead. It's best to use it judiciously.