java - Overloaded method selection based on the parameter's real type

Question

I'm experimenting with this code:

interface Callee {
    public void foo(Object o);
    public void foo(String s);
    public void foo(Integer i);
}

class CalleeImpl implements Callee
    public void foo(Object o) {
        logger.debug("foo(Object o)");
    }

    public void foo(String s) {
        logger.debug("foo("" + s + "")");
    }

    public void foo(Integer i) {
        logger.debug("foo(" + i + ")");
    }
}

Callee callee = new CalleeImpl();

Object i = new Integer(12);
Object s = "foobar";
Object o = new Object();

callee.foo(i);
callee.foo(s);
callee.foo(o);

This prints foo(Object o) three times. I expect the method selection to take in consideration the real (not the declared) parameter type. Am I missing something? Is there a way to modify this code so that it'll print foo(12), foo("foobar") and foo(Object o)?

Answer 1

I expect the method selection to take in consideration the real (not the declared) parameter type. Am I missing something?

Yes. Your expectation is wrong. In Java, dynamic method dispatch happens only for the object the method is called on, not for the parameter types of overloaded methods.

Citing the Java Language Specification:

When a method is invoked (§15.12), the number of actual arguments (and any explicit type arguments) and the compile-time types of the arguments are used, at compile time, to determine the signature of the method that will be invoked (§15.12.2). If the method that is to be invoked is an instance method, the actual method to be invoked will be determined at run time, using dynamic method lookup (§15.12.4).