Java Term of the Week: Method Signature

It's time to look at the humble method signature. It is part of the method declaration and is simply the combination of the method name and parameter list. For example, consider this method declaration:

public void setMapReference(int xCoordinate, int yCoordinate)
{
  //method code
}

It's method signature is setMapReference(int, int) – the method name and the parameter list of two integers.

An object's constructor method is a good example of a time when you might want to employ multiple method signatures. There could be a couple of ways you want to create a new object based on the parameters you pass to it. The reason the compiler doesn't complain is it can distinguish which method to use by the method signature.