{"id":10437,"date":"2011-12-28T12:38:24","date_gmt":"2011-12-28T12:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/virtual-method\/"},"modified":"2011-12-28T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T12:45:10","slug":"virtual-method","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Method"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_virtual_method_mean\">What Does Virtual Method Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A virtual method is a declared class method that allows overriding by a method with the same derived class signature. Virtual methods are tools used to implement the polymorphism feature of an object-oriented language, such as C#. When a virtual object instance method is invoked, the method to be called is determined based on the object&#8217;s runtime type, which is usually that of the most derived class.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_virtual_method\">Techopedia Explains Virtual Method<\/span><\/h2>\n<p> A virtual method is used to override specified base class implementation when a runtime object is of the derived type. Thus, virtual methods facilitate the consistent functionality of a related object set.<\/p>\n<p>An example of a virtual method implementation is classes Manager and Clerk, derived from the base class Employee with a CalculateSalary virtual method, which may be overridden in derived classes with the necessary logic for the appropriate type. A list of Employee type objects may be called at runtime to calculate a salary &#8211; without knowing the specific implementation type.<\/p>\n<p>Virtual method implementation differs in programming languages like C++, Java, C# and Visual Basic .NET. In Java, all non-static methods are virtual by default, with the exception of methods that are private or marked with the keyword final. C# requires the keyword virtual for virtual methods, with the exception of private, static and abstract methods, and the keyword override for overriding the derived class method.<\/p>\n<p>A pure virtual method is a virtual method that mandates a derived class to implement a method and does not allow instantiation of the base class, or abstract class. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Virtual Method Mean? A virtual method is a declared class method that allows overriding by a method with the same derived class signature. Virtual methods are tools used to implement the polymorphism feature of an object-oriented language, such as C#. When a virtual object instance method is invoked, the method to be called [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[224,244,216],"class_list":["post-10437","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-containers-virtualization","definitioncat-programming-languages","definitioncat-software-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Virtual Method? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Method and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virtual Method\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Method and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-28T12:45:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Virtual Method\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-28T12:38:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-28T12:45:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/24299\/virtual-method\",\"name\":\"What is a Virtual Method? 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