Editing Dynamic dispatch (section)

===Single and multiple dispatch===
{{Main|Multiple dispatch}}

The choice of which version of a method to call may be based either on a single object, or on a combination of objects. The former is called ''single dispatch'' and is directly supported by common object-oriented languages such as [[Smalltalk]], [[C++]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Objective-C]], [[Swift (programming language)|Swift]], [[JavaScript]], and [[Python (programming language)|Python]]. In these and similar languages, one may call a method for [[Division (mathematics)|division]] with syntax that resembles
<syntaxhighlight lang="python">
dividend.divide(divisor)  # dividend / divisor
</syntaxhighlight>
where the parameters are optional. This is thought of as sending a message named {{mono|divide}} with parameter {{mono|divisor}} to {{mono|dividend}}. An implementation will be chosen based only on {{mono|dividend}}'s type (perhaps [[rational numbers|rational]], [[floating point]], [[matrix (mathematics)|matrix]]), disregarding the type or value of {{mono|divisor}}.

By contrast, some languages dispatch methods or functions based on the combination of operands; in the division case, the types of the {{mono|dividend}} and {{mono|divisor}} together determine which {{mono|divide}} operation will be performed. This is known as ''multiple dispatch''. Examples of languages that support multiple dispatch are [[Common Lisp]], [[Dylan (programming language)|Dylan]], and [[Julia (programming language)|Julia]].