What is Polymorphism?

Polymorphism is one of the fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP). It refers to the ability of different classes to share the same attributes and methods while exhibiting different behaviors.

Let's consider an example of polymorphism:


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dct = {1: "first", 2: "second", 3: "third"}
string = "Codefinity"
lst = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

print(len(dct))  # counts the keys in dictionary
print(len(string))  # counts the symbols in string
print(len(lst))  # counts the elements in list

The len() function exhibits different behaviors depending on the type of data it operates on. This example serves as a demonstration of polymorphism in action.

Polymorphism Implementation

To implement polymorphism, we can create classes that share the same attributes and methods:


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class User:
    role = "User"
    
    def info(self, some_value):
        print("This is standart user.", some_value + 100)

class Admin:
    role = "Admin"
    
    def info(self, some_value):
        print("This is admin of this service.", some_value * 100)

class Hacker:
    role = "Hacker"

    def info(self, some_value):
        print("This person can thief your data.", some_value * 0)

user = User()
admin = Admin()
hacker = Hacker()

lst = [user, admin, hacker]

for item in lst:
    print(item.role)
    item.info(33)

Note

Polymorphism in Python refers to the ability of objects to exhibit different behaviors while performing the same actions.

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Section 4. Chapter 1

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Course Content

In-Depth Python OOP