Method overloading and choosing the most specific type

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Java uses early binding. The most specific method is chosen at compile time. The most specific method is chosen by number of parameters and type of parameters. Number of parameters is not relevant in this case. This leaves us with the type of parameters.

What type do the parameters have? Both parameters are expressions, using the ternary conditional operator. The question reduces to: What type does the conditional ternary operator return? The type is computed at compile time.

Given are the two expressions:

(10%2==0)? null : new Object(); // A
(10%2==0)? null : null; // B

The rules of type evaluation are listed here. In B it is easy, both terms are exactly the same: null will be returned (whatever type that may be) (JLS: “If the second and third operands have the same type (which may be the null type), then that is the type of the conditional expression.”). In A the second term is from a specific class. As this is more specific and null can be substituted for an object of class Object the type of the whole expression is Object (JLS: “If one of the second and third operands is of the null type and the type of the other is a reference type, then the type of the conditional expression is that reference type.”).

After the type evaluation of the expressions the method selection is as expected.

The example with if you give is different: You call the methods with objects of two different types. The ternary conditional operator always is evaluated to one type at compile time that fits both terms.

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