In Python you can define a method in such a way that there are multiple ways to call it. Depending on the function definition, it can be called with zero, one, two or more parameters. This is known as method overloading.
In the given code, there is a class with one method sayHello(). We rewrite as shown below. The first parameter of this method is set to None, this gives us the option to call it with or without a parameter.
An object is created based on the class, and we call its method using zero and one parameter. To implement method overloading, we call the method sayHello() in two ways: 1. obj.sayHello() and 2.obj.sayHello('Rambo')
We created a method that can be called with fewer arguments than it is defined to allow. We are not limited to two variables, given method can have more variables which are optional.
Example
class Human:
def sayHello(self, name=None):
if name is not None:
print 'Hello ' + name
else:
print 'Hello '
obj = Human()
print(obj.sayHello())
print(obj.sayHello('Rambo'))Output
Hello None Hello Rambo None