Overloading & Overriding in C++

In C++ and other object-oriented programming languages, overriding and overloading are two important concepts that help in extending and modifying functionality. Both concepts are based on the principle of Polymorphism.

Overriding occurs when a function defined in a base class is redefined in a derived class. It is used when we want to change or modify the functionality of a base class's function in the derived class. The function in the derived class "overrides" the base class function.

Key points: Same function name, signature, and return type; only possible with inheritance; used for run-time polymorphism.

Overloading occurs when there are more than one function with the same name, but their number or type of parameters are different. This is also known as compile-time polymorphism.

Key points: Same function name, but different parameter list; used to implement the same function in different ways; an example of compile-time polymorphism.

The main difference is that overriding involves redefining a base class function in a derived class (related to inheritance and runtime), while overloading involves defining multiple functions with the same name but different parameters within the same scope (related to compile-time).