Define two methods with the same type of parameter

Question

Today I came across a scenario where I need to create a method that has the same name, params count and params types with an existing one, something like this:

 public static Department GetDepartment(string departmentName) { //LOGIC } public static Department GetDepartment(string employeeID) { //LOGIC } 

at first glance I just said why not call him by another name and do nothing, but I couldn’t! I want to keep the readability of my code I'm working on, I want it to be overloaded first,
so I said, why not add a fake parameter to get around this problem from a compiler point of view.

  public static Department GetDepartment(string employeeID, object fakePassWtEver) { //LOGIC } 

What is the best practice for this case? I see that all the ways allow my code to work, but none of them satisfied me.

Answer 1

Maintaining readability is exactly why you should rename it:

 Department GetDepartmentByName(...) Department GetDepartmentByEmployeeID(...) 

Now when you call the method, it is absolutely obvious which you mean. This is not the case if you overload this method.

I refuse to overload more and more over time - there are quite a few subtle issues , and readability is often reduced.

Answer 2

You can update the signatures of your method and make your code more readable at the same time by following these steps.

 public static GetDepartmentByName( string departmentName ) public static GetDepartmentByEmployeeId( string employeeId ) 

Personally, I feel that adding verbosity to the code helps others who come later to understand what is going on. It also helps make your methods more readable.

Answer 3

Define 2 methods:

• public static Department GetDepartmentByDepartmentName(string departmentName)
• public static Department GetDepartmentByEmployeeID(string employeeID)

Answer 4

Another option would be to delegate other methods if you can somehow distinguish between the employee ID and the department name by examining the argument.

 public static Department GetDepartment(string employeeIdOrDepartmentName) { if (LooksLikeEmployeeID(employeeIdOrDepartmentName)) return GetDepartmentByEmployeeID(employeeIdOrDepartmentName); else return GetDepartmentByDepartmentName(employeeIdOrDepartmentName); } private static Department GetDepartmentByEmployeeID(string employeeId) { /* ... */ } private static Department GetDepartmentByDepartmentName(string departmentName) { /* ... */ } 

You should only do this if you absolutely cannot add another method for clarity - the remaining answers are 100%.