How to identify signatures of a method in Java?

Question

I believe that I am having trouble understanding how to give a signature of a method in Java. For example, if my code was:

public void addOn(Fraction other) {
      number = other.denominator * number + other.numerator * denominator;
      denominator = denominator * other.denominator;

and I had to give the signature of the method addOn();

Would the signature for this method simply be addOn(Fraction);?

Answer 1

That really depends on the level of "accuracy" that you need.

When you informally talk to you coworker, then the "signature" would probably contain all information that a human being might find interesting:

1. return type
2. method name
3. parameter types (including their ordering!)
4. throws list
5. ( annotations )

Whereas, when you come from a compiler-constructor or maybe JVM compiler point of view, the answer is different; in that case, only items 2, and 3 do matter; anything else is not part of the signature.