Binding Time
The binding of names before the program is run is called static (also "early"); bindings performed as the program runs are dynamic (also "late" or "virtual").
An example of a static binding is a direct C function call: the function referenced by the identifier cannot change at runtime.
But an example of dynamic binding is dynamic dispatch, as in a C++ virtual method call. Since the specific type of a polymorphic object is not known before runtime (in general), the executed function is dynamically bound. Take, for example, the following Java code:
public void foo(java.util.ListList is an interface, so list must refer to a subtype of it. Is it a reference to a LinkedList, an ArrayList, or some other subtype of List? The actual method referenced by add is not known until runtime. In a language like C, the actual function is known.
Read more about this topic: Name Binding
Famous quotes containing the words binding and/or time:
“What is lawful is not binding only on some and not binding on others. Lawfulness extends everywhere, through the wide-ruling air and the boundless light of the sky.”
—Empedocles 484–424 B.C., Greek philosopher. The Presocratics, p. 142, ed. Philip Wheelwright, The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc. (1960)
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to
dance;”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes (l. III, 4)