When I have a function that might, or might not receive a certain parameter, is it better to overload the function, or to add optional args?If each one has it's ups and downs - when would I use each?
Overload or Optional Parameters
method overloading
If the language supports them properly (e.g. type-safety, if applicable), I would prefer optional arguments for the following reasons:They convey your intent better so noone suspects that your function overload will do something different (which it probably shouldn't anyway).Less code to maintain, even if the function overload only delegates to the more comprehensive one. If you want to rename the function later, you have at least 3 places to do it (two definitions + one call).The compiler (if any) might generate smaller binaries.Optional arguments scale better, at least in some languages. What if you want to have 3 optional arguments with the ability to mix and match? For full flexibility, you'd need 6 overloads to do that.If it's an object method, multiple overloads will greatly hinder the implementation of overrides in subclasses.