Arizona State University (ASU) CSE100 Principles of Programming with C++ Midterm 1 Practice Exam

Method overriding in C++ occurs when a derived class provides a new implementation of a method that is already defined in its base class. This is a core concept in object-oriented programming that allows the derived class to have a behavior that differs from the base class, while still maintaining the same method signature.

When a method in a base class is declared as `virtual`, the derived class can override this method with its own implementation. This allows for polymorphism, enabling objects of the derived class to be treated as objects of the base class while still executing their specific overridden behavior when the method is called. This is particularly useful when you want to have a common interface but vary the functionality in subclasses.

For instance, if you have a base class `Animal` with a method `speak()`, the derived class `Dog` can override `speak()` to provide a sound appropriate to a dog, while other animals like `Cat` might implement their own version of `speak()` that sounds like a meow.

In contrast, defining two methods with the same name but different parameters pertains to method overloading, which is a different concept where the method signature varies. Disallowing method definitions or creating methods that prevent base class methods from being called