Name hiding in C++

Problem

What is name hiding in C++?

Solution

Lets talk about  3 points :

• Overriding
• Overloading
• Hiding

Overriding
In Thinking in C++, 2e, Volume 1 (pages 632:646), Bruce Eckel had something similar to say, but he did specifically say overriding:

The redefinition of a virtual function in a derived class is usually called overriding

 Overloading

Overloading allows you to provide more than one definition for a function within the same scope.

Hiding
Page 130 from C++ Programming in Easy Steps also mentions:

The technique of overriding base class methods must be used with caution however, to avoid unintentionally hiding overloaded methods – a single overriding method in a derived class will hide all overloaded methods of that name in the base class.

Let us explain through an example. In C++, when you have a class with an overloaded method, and you then extend and override that method, you must override all of the overloaded methods.
For example:

class FirstClass {
public:
    virtual void MethodA (int);
    virtual void MethodA (int, int);
};
 
void FirstClass::MethodA (int i) {
    std::cout << "ONE!!\n";
}
 
void FirstClass::MethodA (int i, int j) {
    std::cout << "TWO!!\n";
}

This is a simple class with two methods (or one overloaded method). If you want to override the one-parameter version, you can do the following:

class SecondClass : public FirstClass {
public:
    void MethodA (int);
};
 
void SecondClass::MethodA (int i) {
    std::cout << "THREE!!\n";
}
 
int main () {
    SecondClass a;
    a.MethodA (1);
    a.MethodA (1, 1);
}

However, the second call won't work, since the two-parameter MethodA is not visible:

error: no matching function for call to ‘SecondClass::MethodA(int, int)’
note: candidates are: virtual void SecondClass::MethodA(int)

That is name hiding.Of-course, this is a basic post, but you would like to go deep, read more:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10173211/confusion-regarding-name-hiding-and-virtual-functions
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4837399/c-rationale-behind-hiding-rule
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5928535/name-hiding-and-fragile-base-problem - a situation where changes to the base class can break code that uses derived classes (that being the definition I found on Wikipedia)

References
http://tianrunhe.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/name-hiding-in-c/
http://www.whyaskwhy.org/blog/907/c-overloading-overriding-and-hiding-oh-my/