reg: C++ function overloading

[madhuti]

In one of my interview i faced a different question on function overloading.

void call(int a, int b){ }
int call(int a, float b){ return 1;}
The above functions will compile and works fine. But,

void call(int a, int b){}
int   call(int a, int b){}

This will gives error.
So, why compiler is not taking the return type into consideration for checking the function overloading.

Thanks in advance,
Madhu

[JohnGraham]

So, why compiler is not taking the return type into consideration for checking the function overloading.

Quite simply it's because the compiler can't reliably differentiate between function calls based solely on return-type. For example, with the above two function definitions, a call like this:

int x = call(0, 1);

obviously wants the second function, as the first one doesn't supply a return value, but one like this:

call(0, 1);

is ambiguous - you could be meaning to call either function for their side-effects alone.

[SaadQureshi2011]

this website contains complete source code and tutorial on function overloading and templates in C++:
bitsbyta dot blogspot dot com