I often do this:

C#:

public string CatStrings(string p1)                  {return p1;}
public string CatStrings(string p1, int p2)          {return p1+p2.ToString();}
public string CatStrings(string p1, int p2, bool p3) {return p1+p2.ToString()+p3.ToString();}

CatStrings("one");        // result = one
CatStrings("one",2);      // result = one2
CatStrings("one",2,true); // result = one2true

JavaScript Equivalent:

function CatStrings(p1, p2, p3)
{
  var s = p1;
  if(typeof p2 !== "undefined") {s += p2;}
  if(typeof p3 !== "undefined") {s += p3;}
  return s;
};

CatStrings("one");        // result = one
CatStrings("one",2);      // result = one2
CatStrings("one",2,true); // result = one2true

This particular example is actually more elegant in javascript than C#. Parameters which are not specified are 'undefined' in javascript, which evaluates to false in an if statement. However, the function definition does not convey the information that p2 and p3 are optional. If you need a lot of overloading, jQuery has decided to use an object as the parameter, for example, jQuery.ajax(options). I agree with them that this is the most powerful and clearly documentable approach to overloading, but I rarely need more than one or two quick optional parameters.

EDIT: changed IF test per Ian's suggestion

There is no real function overloading in JavaScript since it allows to pass any number of parameters of any type. You have to check inside the function how many arguments have been passed and what type they are.

The correct answer is THERE IS NO OVERLOADING IN JAVASCRIPT.

Checking / Switching inside the function is not OVERLOADING.

The concept of overloading: In some programming languages, function overloading or method overloading is the ability to create multiple methods of the same name with different implementations. Calls to an overloaded function will run a specific implementation of that function appropriate to the context of the call, allowing one function call to perform different tasks depending on context.

For example, doTask() and doTask(object O) are overloaded methods. To call the latter, an object must be passed as a parameter, whereas the former does not require a parameter, and is called with an empty parameter field. A common error would be to assign a default value to the object in the second method, which would result in an ambiguous call error, as the compiler wouldn't know which of the two methods to use.

All suggested implementations are great, but truth to be told, there is no native implementation for JavaScript.

There are two ways you could approach this better:

1. Pass a dictionary (associative array) if you want to leave a lot of flexibility

2. Take an object as the argument and use prototype based inheritance to add flexibility.

Here is an approach that allows real method overloading using parameter types, shown below:

Func(new Point());
Func(new Dimension());
Func(new Dimension(), new Point());
Func(0, 0, 0, 0);

Edit (2018): Since this was written in 2011, the speed of direct method calls has greatly increased while the speed of overloaded methods have not.

It is not an approach I would recommend, but it is a worthwhile thought exercise to think about how you can solve these types of problems.

Here is a benchmark of the different approaches - . It shows that function overloading (taking types into account) can be around 13 times slower in Google Chrome's V8 as of 16.0(beta).

As well as passing an object (i.e. {x: 0, y: 0}), one can also take the C approach when appropriate, naming the methods accordingly. For example, Vector.AddVector(vector), Vector.AddIntegers(x, y, z, ...) and Vector.AddArray(integerArray). You can look at C libraries, such as OpenGL for naming inspiration.

Edit: I've added a benchmark for passing an object and testing for the object using both 'param' in arg and arg.hasOwnProperty('param'), and function overloading is much faster than passing an object and checking for properties (in this benchmark at least).

From a design perspective, function overloading is only valid or logical if the overloaded parameters correspond to the same action. So it stands to reason that there ought to be an underlying method that is only concerned with specific details, otherwise that may indicate inappropriate design choices. So one could also resolve the use of function overloading by converting data to a respective object. Of course one must consider the scope of the problem as there's no need in making elaborate designs if your intention is just to print a name, but for the design of frameworks and libraries such thought is justified.

My example comes from a Rectangle implementation - hence the mention of Dimension and Point. Perhaps Rectangle could add a GetRectangle() method to the Dimension and Point prototype, and then the function overloading issue is sorted. And what about primitives? Well, we have argument length, which is now a valid test since objects have a GetRectangle() method.

function Dimension() {}
function Point() {}

var Util = {};

Util.Redirect = function (args, func) {
  'use strict';
  var REDIRECT_ARGUMENT_COUNT = 2;

  if(arguments.length - REDIRECT_ARGUMENT_COUNT !== args.length) {
    return null;
  }

  for(var i = REDIRECT_ARGUMENT_COUNT; i < arguments.length; ++i) {
    var argsIndex = i-REDIRECT_ARGUMENT_COUNT;
    var currentArgument = args[argsIndex];
    var currentType = arguments[i];
    if(typeof(currentType) === 'object') {
      currentType = currentType.constructor;
    }
    if(typeof(currentType) === 'number') {
      currentType = 'number';
    }
    if(typeof(currentType) === 'string' && currentType === '') {
      currentType = 'string';
    }
    if(typeof(currentType) === 'function') {
      if(!(currentArgument instanceof currentType)) {
        return null;
      }
    } else {
      if(typeof(currentArgument) !== currentType) {
        return null;
      }
    } 
  }
  return [func.apply(this, args)];
}

function FuncPoint(point) {}
function FuncDimension(dimension) {}
function FuncDimensionPoint(dimension, point) {}
function FuncXYWidthHeight(x, y, width, height) { }

function Func() {
  Util.Redirect(arguments, FuncPoint, Point);
  Util.Redirect(arguments, FuncDimension, Dimension);
  Util.Redirect(arguments, FuncDimensionPoint, Dimension, Point);
  Util.Redirect(arguments, FuncXYWidthHeight, 0, 0, 0, 0);
}

Func(new Point());
Func(new Dimension());
Func(new Dimension(), new Point());
Func(0, 0, 0, 0);

The best way really depends on the function and the arguments. Each of your options is a good idea in different situations. I generally try these in the following order until one of them works:

1. Using optional arguments like y = y || 'default'. This is convenient if you can do it, but it may not always work practically, e.g. when 0/null/undefined would be a valid argument.

2. Using number of arguments. Similar to the last option but may work when #1 doesn't work.

3. Checking types of arguments. This can work in some cases where the number of arguments is the same. If you can't reliably determine the types, you may need to use different names.

4. Using different names in the first place. You may need to do this if the other options won't work, aren't practical, or for consistency with other related functions.

If I needed a function with two uses foo(x) and foo(x,y,z) which is the best / preferred way?

The issue is that JavaScript does NOT natively support method overloading. So, if it sees/parses two or more functions with a same names it’ll just consider the last defined function and overwrite the previous ones.

One of the way I think is suitable for most of the case is follows -

Lets say you have method

function foo(x)
{
} 

Instead of overloading method which is not possible in javascript you can define a new method

fooNew(x,y,z)
{
}

and then modify the 1st function as follows -

function foo(arguments)
{
  if(arguments.length==2)
  {
     return fooNew(arguments[0],  arguments[1]);
  }
} 

If you have many such overloaded methods consider using switch than just if-else statements.

I'm not sure about best practice, but here is how I do it:

/*
 * Object Constructor
 */
var foo = function(x) {
    this.x = x;
};

/*
 * Object Protoype
 */
foo.prototype = {
    /*
     * f is the name that is going to be used to call the various overloaded versions
     */
    f: function() {

        /*
         * Save 'this' in order to use it inside the overloaded functions
         * because there 'this' has a different meaning.
         */   
        var that = this;  

        /* 
         * Define three overloaded functions
         */
        var f1 = function(arg1) {
            console.log("f1 called with " + arg1);
            return arg1 + that.x;
        }

        var f2 = function(arg1, arg2) {
             console.log("f2 called with " + arg1 + " and " + arg2);
             return arg1 + arg2 + that.x;
        }

        var f3 = function(arg1) {
             console.log("f3 called with [" + arg1[0] + ", " + arg1[1] + "]");
             return arg1[0] + arg1[1];
        }

        /*
         * Use the arguments array-like object to decide which function to execute when calling f(...)
         */
        if (arguments.length === 1 && !Array.isArray(arguments[0])) {
            return f1(arguments[0]);
        } else if (arguments.length === 2) {
            return f2(arguments[0], arguments[1]);
        } else if (arguments.length === 1 && Array.isArray(arguments[0])) {
            return f3(arguments[0]);
        }
    } 
}

/* 
 * Instantiate an object
 */
var obj = new foo("z");

/*
 * Call the overloaded functions using f(...)
 */
console.log(obj.f("x"));         // executes f1, returns "xz"
console.log(obj.f("x", "y"));    // executes f2, returns "xyz"
console.log(obj.f(["x", "y"]));  // executes f3, returns "xy"

I just tried this, maybe it suits your needs. Depending on the number of the arguments, you can access a different function. You initialize it the first time you call it. And the function map is hidden in the closure.

TEST = {};

TEST.multiFn = function(){
    // function map for our overloads
    var fnMap = {};

    fnMap[0] = function(){
        console.log("nothing here");
        return this;    //    support chaining
    }

    fnMap[1] = function(arg1){
        //    CODE here...
        console.log("1 arg: "+arg1);
        return this;
    };

    fnMap[2] = function(arg1, arg2){
        //    CODE here...
        console.log("2 args: "+arg1+", "+arg2);
        return this;
    };

    fnMap[3] = function(arg1,arg2,arg3){
        //    CODE here...
        console.log("3 args: "+arg1+", "+arg2+", "+arg3);
        return this;
    };

    console.log("multiFn is now initialized");

    //    redefine the function using the fnMap in the closure
    this.multiFn = function(){
        fnMap[arguments.length].apply(this, arguments);
        return this;
    };

    //    call the function since this code will only run once
    this.multiFn.apply(this, arguments);

    return this;    
};

Test it.

TEST.multiFn("0")
    .multiFn()
    .multiFn("0","1","2");

Not everybody knows that you can do Destructuring assignment directly in a function signature.

Thanks to that you can easily define a very flexible method signature, which is, IMHO, superior to Java method overloading.

Example:

const myFunction = (({a, b, c}) => {
    console.log(a, b, c);
});

myFunction({a: 1, b: 2});
myFunction({a: 1, b: 2, c: 3});

You don't even need to respect the order of the parameters, and there is naming consistency between the calling statement and the target method signature.

You can also assign default values:

const myFunction = (({a = 1, b = 2, c} = {}) => {
    console.log(a, b, c);
});

INTRODUCTION

So far reading through so many answers would give anyone a headache. Anyone trying to know the concept would need to know the following prerequisites.

Function overloading Definition, Function Length property, Function argument property

Function overloading in its simplest form means that a function performs different tasks on the basis of number of arguments that are being passed to it. Notably the TASK1, TASK2 and TASK3 are highlighted below and are being performed on the basis of the number of arguments being passed to the same function fooYo.

// if we have a function defined below
function fooYo(){
     // do something here
}
// on invoking fooYo with different number of arguments it should be capable to do different things

fooYo();  // does TASK1
fooYo('sagar'); // does TASK2
fooYo('sagar','munjal'); // does TAKS3

NOTE - JS does not provide inbuilt ability of function overloading.

Alternative

John E Resig (creator of JS) has pointed out an alternative which uses the above prerequisites to achieve the ability to implement function overloading.

The code below uses a straightforward but naive approach by using if-else or switch statement.

• evaluates the argument-length property.
• different values result in invocation of different functions.

var ninja = {
  whatever: function() {
       switch (arguments.length) {
         case 0:
           /* do something */
           break;
         case 1:
           /* do something else */
           break;
         case 2:
           /* do yet something else */
           break;
       //and so on ...
    } 
  }
}

Another technique is much more clean and dynamic. The highlight of this technique is the addMethod generic function.

• we define a function addMethod which is used to add different functions to an object with the same name but different functionalities.

• below the addMethod function accepts three params object name object, function name name and the function that we want to be invoked fn.

• Inside addMethod definition var old stores the reference to the previous function being stored by the help of closure - a protective bubble.

function addMethod(object, name, fn) {
  var old = object[name];
  object[name] = function(){
    if (fn.length == arguments.length)
      return fn.apply(this, arguments)
    else if (typeof old == 'function')
      return old.apply(this, arguments);
  };
};

• use debugger to understand the code flow.
• below the addMethod adds three functions which when invoked using ninja.whatever(x) with the number of arguments x which can be anything i.e. either blank or one or more than one invokes different functions as defined while making use of the addMethod function.

var ninja = {};
debugger;


addMethod(ninja,'whatever',function(){ console.log("I am the one with ZERO arguments supplied") });
addMethod(ninja,'whatever',function(a){ console.log("I am the one with ONE arguments supplied") });
addMethod(ninja,'whatever',function(a,b){ console.log("I am the one with TWO arguments supplied") });


ninja.whatever();
ninja.whatever(1,2);
ninja.whatever(3);

Since JavaScript doesn't have function overload options object can be used instead. If there are one or two required arguments, it's better to keep them separate from the options object. Here is an example on how to use options object and populated values to default value in case if value was not passed in options object.

    function optionsObjectTest(x, y, opts) {
        opts = opts || {}; // default to an empty options object

        var stringValue = opts.stringValue || "string default value";
        var boolValue = !!opts.boolValue; // coerces value to boolean with a double negation pattern
        var numericValue = opts.numericValue === undefined ? 123 : opts.numericValue;

        return "{x:" + x + ", y:" + y + ", stringValue:'" + stringValue + "', boolValue:" + boolValue + ", numericValue:" + numericValue + "}";

}

here is an example on how to use options object

check this out. It is very cool. Trick Javascript to allow you to do calls like this:

var users = new Users();
users.find(); // Finds all
users.find("John"); // Finds users by name
users.find("John", "Resig"); // Finds users by first and last name

There is no way to function overloading in javascript. So, I recommend like the following by typeof() method instead of multiple function to fake overloading.

function multiTypeFunc(param)
{
    if(typeof param == 'string') {
        alert("I got a string type parameter!!");
     }else if(typeof param == 'number') {
        alert("I got a number type parameter!!");
     }else if(typeof param == 'boolean') {
        alert("I got a boolean type parameter!!");
     }else if(typeof param == 'object') {
        alert("I got a object type parameter!!");
     }else{
        alert("error : the parameter is undefined or null!!");
     }
}

Good luck!

Another way to approach this is by using the special variable: arguments, this is an implementation:

function sum() {
    var x = 0;
    for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; ++i) {
        x += arguments[i];
    }
    return x;
}

so you can modify this code to:

function sum(){
    var s = 0;
    if (typeof arguments[0] !== "undefined") s += arguments[0];
.
.
.
    return s;
}

#Forwarding Pattern => the best practice on JS overloading Forward to another function which name is built from the 3rd & 4th points :

3. Using number of arguments
4. Checking types of arguments

window['foo_'+arguments.length+'_'+Array.from(arguments).map((arg)=>typeof arg).join('_')](...arguments)

#Application on your case :

 function foo(...args){
          return window['foo_' + args.length+'_'+Array.from(args).map((arg)=>typeof arg).join('_')](...args);

  }
   //------Assuming that `x` , `y` and `z` are String when calling `foo` . 
  
  /**-- for :  foo(x)*/
  function foo_1_string(){
  }
  /**-- for : foo(x,y,z) ---*/
  function foo_3_string_string_string(){
      
  }

#Other Complex Sample :

      function foo(...args){
          return window['foo_'+args.length+'_'+Array.from(args).map((arg)=>typeof arg).join('_')](...args);
       }

        /** one argument & this argument is string */
      function foo_1_string(){

      }
       //------------
       /** one argument & this argument is object */
      function foo_1_object(){

      }
      //----------
      /** two arguments & those arguments are both string */
      function foo_2_string_string(){

      }
       //--------
      /** Three arguments & those arguments are : id(number),name(string), callback(function) */
      function foo_3_number_string_function(){
                let args=arguments;
                  new Person(args[0],args[1]).onReady(args[3]);
      }
     
       //--- And so on ....   

As this post already contains a lot of different solutions i thought i post another one.

function onlyUnique(value, index, self) {
    return self.indexOf(value) === index;
}

function overload() {
   var functions = arguments;
   var nroffunctionsarguments = [arguments.length];
    for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
        nroffunctionsarguments[i] = arguments[i].length;
    }
    var unique = nroffunctionsarguments.filter(onlyUnique);
    if (unique.length === arguments.length) {
        return function () {
            var indexoffunction = nroffunctionsarguments.indexOf(arguments.length);
            return functions[indexoffunction].apply(this, arguments);
        }
    }
    else throw new TypeError("There are multiple functions with the same number of parameters");

}

this can be used as shown below:

var createVector = overload(
        function (length) {
            return { x: length / 1.414, y: length / 1.414 };
        },
        function (a, b) {
            return { x: a, y: b };
        },
        function (a, b,c) {
            return { x: a, y: b, z:c};
        }
    );
console.log(createVector(3, 4));
console.log(createVector(3, 4,5));
console.log(createVector(7.07));

This solution is not perfect but i only want to demonstrate how it could be done.

You can user the 'addMethod' from John Resig. With this method you can "overload" methods based on arguments count.

// addMethod - By John Resig (MIT Licensed)
function addMethod(object, name, fn){
    var old = object[ name ];
    object[ name ] = function(){
        if ( fn.length == arguments.length )
            return fn.apply( this, arguments );
        else if ( typeof old == 'function' )
            return old.apply( this, arguments );
    };
}

I have also created an alternative to this method that uses caching to hold the variations of the function. The differencies are described here

// addMethod - By Stavros Ioannidis
function addMethod(obj, name, fn) {
  obj[name] = obj[name] || function() {
    // get the cached method with arguments.length arguments
    var method = obj[name].cache[arguments.length];

    // if method exists call it 
    if ( !! method)
      return method.apply(this, arguments);
    else throw new Error("Wrong number of arguments");
  };

  // initialize obj[name].cache
  obj[name].cache = obj[name].cache || {};

  // Check if a method with the same number of arguments exists  
  if ( !! obj[name].cache[fn.length])
    throw new Error("Cannot define multiple '" + name +
      "' methods with the same number of arguments!");

  // cache the method with fn.length arguments
  obj[name].cache[fn.length] = function() {
    return fn.apply(this, arguments);
  };
}

Function Overloading via Dynamic Polymorphism in 100 lines of JS

• VanillaJS, no external dependencies
• Full Browser Support - Array.prototype.slice, Object.prototype.toString
• 1114 bytes uglify'd / 744 bytes g-zipped

This is from a larger body of code which includes the isFn, isArr, etc. type checking functions. The VanillaJS version below has been reworked to remove all external dependencies, however you will have to define you're own type checking functions for use in the .add() calls.

Note: This is a self-executing function (so we can have a closure/closed scope), hence the assignment to window.overload rather than function overload() {...}.

window.overload = function () {
    "use strict"

    var a_fnOverloads = [],
        _Object_prototype_toString = Object.prototype.toString
    ;

    function isFn(f) {
        return (_Object_prototype_toString.call(f) === '[object Function]');
    } //# isFn

    function isObj(o) {
        return !!(o && o === Object(o));
    } //# isObj

    function isArr(a) {
        return (_Object_prototype_toString.call(a) === '[object Array]');
    } //# isArr

    function mkArr(a) {
        return Array.prototype.slice.call(a);
    } //# mkArr

    function fnCall(fn, vContext, vArguments) {
        //# <ES5 Support for array-like objects
        //#     See: 
        vArguments = (isArr(vArguments) ? vArguments : mkArr(vArguments));

        if (isFn(fn)) {
            return fn.apply(vContext || this, vArguments);
        }
    } //# fnCall

    //# 
    function registerAlias(fnOverload, fn, sAlias) {
        //# 
        if (sAlias && !fnOverload[sAlias]) {
            fnOverload[sAlias] = fn;
        }
    } //# registerAlias

    //# 
    function overload(vOptions) {
        var oData = (isFn(vOptions) ?
                { default: vOptions } :
                (isObj(vOptions) ?
                    vOptions :
                    {
                        default: function (/*arguments*/) {
                            throw "Overload not found for arguments: [" + mkArr(arguments) + "]";
                        }
                    }
                )
            ),
            fnOverload = function (/*arguments*/) {
                var oEntry, i, j,
                    a = arguments,
                    oArgumentTests = oData[a.length] || []
                ;

                //# Traverse the oArgumentTests for the number of passed a(rguments), defaulting the oEntry at the beginning of each loop
                for (i = 0; i < oArgumentTests.length; i++) {
                    oEntry = oArgumentTests[i];

                    //# Traverse the passed a(rguments), if a .test for the current oArgumentTests fails, reset oEntry and fall from the a(rgument)s loop
                    for (j = 0; j < a.length; j++) {
                        if (!oArgumentTests[i].tests[j](a[j])) {
                            oEntry = undefined;
                            break;
                        }
                    }

                    //# If all of the a(rgument)s passed the .tests we found our oEntry, so break from the oArgumentTests loop
                    if (oEntry) {
                        break;
                    }
                }

                //# If we found our oEntry above, .fn.call its .fn
                if (oEntry) {
                    oEntry.calls++;
                    return fnCall(oEntry.fn, this, a);
                }
                //# Else we were unable to find a matching oArgumentTests oEntry, so .fn.call our .default
                else {
                    return fnCall(oData.default, this, a);
                }
            } //# fnOverload
        ;

        //# 
        fnOverload.add = function (fn, a_vArgumentTests, sAlias) {
            var i,
                bValid = isFn(fn),
                iLen = (isArr(a_vArgumentTests) ? a_vArgumentTests.length : 0)
            ;

            //# 
            if (bValid) {
                //# Traverse the a_vArgumentTests, processinge each to ensure they are functions (or references to )
                for (i = 0; i < iLen; i++) {
                    if (!isFn(a_vArgumentTests[i])) {
                        bValid = _false;
                    }
                }
            }

            //# If the a_vArgumentTests are bValid, set the info into oData under the a_vArgumentTests's iLen
            if (bValid) {
                oData[iLen] = oData[iLen] || [];
                oData[iLen].push({
                    fn: fn,
                    tests: a_vArgumentTests,
                    calls: 0
                });

                //# 
                registerAlias(fnOverload, fn, sAlias);

                return fnOverload;
            }
            //# Else one of the passed arguments was not bValid, so throw the error
            else {
                throw "poly.overload: All tests must be functions or strings referencing `is.*`.";
            }
        }; //# overload*.add

        //# 
        fnOverload.list = function (iArgumentCount) {
            return (arguments.length > 0 ? oData[iArgumentCount] || [] : oData);
        }; //# overload*.list

        //# 
        a_fnOverloads.push(fnOverload);
        registerAlias(fnOverload, oData.default, "default");

        return fnOverload;
    } //# overload

    //# 
    overload.is = function (fnTarget) {
        return (a_fnOverloads.indexOf(fnTarget) > -1);
    } //# overload.is

    return overload;
}();