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Overloading methods question

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Is it better to overload a single method name several times or to create 
uniquely-named methods to accomplish similar work?

I am in the midst of rewriting some old convenience methods that work 
with dates and times but use the old Calendar and java.util.Time 
classes. I know that it is far better to use the java.time.* packages now.

In the course of revising my methods to use the Java 8 classes, it has 
occurred to me that I should have several variants of some of the 
methods. For instance, one of my methods determines the name of the 
current month.

It seems reasonable to me that I might at some point need to know the 
name of the current month:
- in either short or long version - i.e. "Oct" or "October"
- in the local timezone or a different one (after all, while it may be 
late in the day on Oct 31 in my timezone, it may already be early Nov 1 
a few timezones away)

APPROACH 1:
I could have several overloaded versions of a single method. For instance:
- getCurrentMonthName(boolean fullMonthName) and assume local time zone
- getCurrentMonthName(ZoneId zoneId) and assume full month name
- getCurrentMonthName(boolean fullMonthName, ZoneId zoneId) and assume 
nothing
- getCurrentMonthName() and assume local time zone and full month name

APPROACH 2:
Or I could do this:
- getCurrentMonthNameLocal(boolean fullMonthName) and assume local time zone
- getCurrentMonthNameRemote(boolean fullMonthName, ZoneId zoneId)
  and assume nothing

APPROACH 3:
I could even do this:
- getCurrentMonthNameFullLocal() and assume local time zone
- getCurrentMonthNameShortLocal() and assume local time zone
- getCurrentMonthNameFullRemote(ZoneId zoneId) and use specified time zone
- getCurrentMonthNameShortRemote(ZoneId zoneId) and use specified time zone

APPROACH 4:
Or I could reduce the number of methods I need by having only this:
- getCurrentMonthName(boolean fullMonthName, ZoneId) which would force 
users to supply a value for the boolean and the zoneId every time even 
if they wanted the local time zone

Which is the best design and, most importantly, WHY? I expect there is a 
basic design precept somewhere that helps a developer decide which is 
the best way to go in circumstances like these. It would be helpful to 
learn (or rediscover) this principle.

Can anyone help me out?

In the absence of such a principle, it seems to me that I need to weigh 
the costs of each approach against the benefits and see which is the 
best balance. For instance, Approach 4 has the benefit of requiring me 
to code only one method to get the current month but means the method is 
more complex and probably has more conditions to test in unit test. It 
may also be more work for the person trying to use these classes as they 
have to understand the meaning of the parameters and figure out how to 
set the desired values. (I'm just learning the Java 8 time classes and 
didn't know what a zoneId was 24 hours ago, let alone how to set it and 
what values I could use. A developer using these classes might be in the 
same boat.)

-- 
Rhino

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Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-24 17:04 -0400
  Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-24 18:56 -0400
  Re: Overloading methods question Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2018-10-25 10:13 +0200
    Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-25 15:53 -0400
      Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-25 13:58 -0700
        Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-25 17:49 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-25 22:29 +0000
            Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-25 20:08 -0400
              Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-26 00:37 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-25 21:42 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2018-10-26 12:46 +0200
                Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-26 07:50 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-26 19:33 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-26 13:13 -0700
                Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-26 20:58 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-27 22:36 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2018-10-27 19:38 -0400
                Re: Overloading methods question Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-10-28 10:39 +0000
                Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-28 07:54 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-26 06:26 -0700
      Re: Overloading methods question Joerg Meier <joergmmeier@arcor.de> - 2018-10-26 12:52 +0200
        Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-26 22:10 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-27 07:43 -0400
            Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-29 14:40 -0400
              Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-29 16:39 -0400
          Re: Overloading methods question Eric Douglas <e.d.programmer@gmail.com> - 2018-10-29 05:07 -0700
            Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-29 14:41 -0400
  Re: Overloading methods question Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2018-10-25 07:49 -0400
    Re: Overloading methods question Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> - 2018-10-25 16:07 -0400

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