# Polymorphism

Polymorphism is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming (OOP) that allows objects of different types to be treated as objects of a common base type. The term "polymorphism" comes from the Greek words "poly," meaning many, and "morph," meaning form. There are two main types of polymorphism: compile-time (or static) polymorphism and runtime (or dynamic) polymorphism.

*Same attribute names existing in multiple classes is not polymorphism.*

**When dealing with polymorphism, we often just analyze methods.**

{% hint style="info" %}
One type of Polymorphism called **`Overloading`** is not a concept that is available in Python.\
\
[More info here.](https://www.pluralsight.com/guides/overload-methods-invoking-overload-methods-csharp)
{% endhint %}

The two main types of polymorphism in Python is:

1. Different Classes, Same Named Methods, same -or- different behaviour.
2. [**Overriding** & **Inheritance**](https://mrparkonline.gitbook.io/guide-to-high-school-computer-science/python-programming/python-programming/object-oriented-programming/inheritance-and-overriding) **(Next Page)**

## Basic Method Polymorphism

```python
# Polymorphism Example

class Dog:
    def sound(self):
        print("Bark!")

class Cat:
    def sound(self):
        print("Meow~")
        
class Bird:
    def sound(self):
        print("Peep.")
```

If we examine the 3 simple classes we made of `Dog`, `Cat`, and `Bird`, they all share a common method called `sound()`. 

However, the behaviour of the method is different as a dog barks, a cat meows, and a bird peeps. 

Methods showing polymorphism can differ by their arguments of the method and/or by their output/returned value of the method.