Is method overloading supported with different return type with same signature in .NET

No, method overloading does not support with different return type in C#/VB.NET. If the signature is same (data type and order of arguments) and return type is different we will get error in C# or VB.In C# dev,we will get the error after building the project but in case VB.NET we will get the error beforing building the project.

Below is the piece of code to understand easily.

public int add(int a,int b)         {             return a+b;         }         public string add(int a, int b)         {             return (a + b).ToString();         }

C# Complile Error as “ ‘Class_Name' already defines a member called 'add' with the same parameter types”

Function add(ByRef a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer) As Integer         Return a + b     End Function     Function add(ByRef a As Integer, ByVal b As Integer) As Integer         Return a + b     End Function

VB.NET Complile  error as 'Public Function add(ByRef a As Integer, b As Integer) As Integer' and 'Public Function add(ByRef a As Integer, b As Integer) As String' cannot overload each other because they differ only by return types.

Method overloading can have same method name with different data type and order of the arguments. It will not support different return type for same signature.