Constructor overloading

[ibs]

Why Dart doesn't allow to overload constructors. I have to define
named constructors to get some constructors with different parameter
lists.

[Iph]

In my eyes, it looks like it would have to due with darts typing
system. Dart's typing is more for tooling, documentation, and
debugging (compile time warnings and what-not). After compiling is
said and done though, something like these functions:

function add(double a, double b);
and
function add(int a, int b);

Turn into:

function add(var a,var b);
function add(var a, var b);

Hope I am correct in saying this :)

[Chris Buckett]

> function add(var a,var b);
> function add(var a, var b);

You are correct with that assumption.

There's a pretty good discussion of method overloading (which I guess
would also apply to constructors) on this post here:
https://groups.google.com/a/dartlang.org/group/misc/browse_thread/thread/3bfa9ef4315dd970/ac528b2772f4ebe5
It's all in the context of setStrokeColor - which happened to be the
concrete example that raised the discussion.

Hope that helps (at least in providing context),
Cheers,
Chris.

[Bob Nystrom]

Chris and Sean answered the "why" question, I think. I'll just add that you don't always need to use named constructors. In many cases, a single primary constructor with a couple of named optional parameters will accomplish what you want.

- bob

[Seth Ladd]

For example:

class Dog {

  String name;

  String breed;

  int age;

  Dog(this.name, [this.breed=null, this.age=null]);

}

main() {

  var sparky = new Dog('sparky', age:2);

  print(sparky.name); // sparky

  print(sparky.age); // 2

  print(sparky.breed); // null

}

http://try.dartlang.org/s/o4wr