Why should I ever overload methods?
<p>I found two examples in my book of overloading methods, but it doesn't explain clearly exactly why it's useful:</p>

<pre><code>package keepo;
public class Main{
    public static void main(String [] args)
    {
        int newScore = calculateScore("Tim", 500);
        System.out.println("New Score is" + newScore);
        calculateScore(75);

    }
    public static int calculateScore(String playerName, int score){
        System.out.println("Player" + playerName +"Has score" + score);
        return score * 1000;
    }
    public static int calculateScore(int score){
        System.out.println("Unnamed player scored" + score + "points");
        return score * 1000;
    }
}
</code></pre>

<p>This is pretty straightforward, but honestly it seems pretty useless to method overload here, and it seems just doing it for the sake of doing it.</p>

<p>The next example in the book does method overloading which seems a bit more useful, because that program calculates feet to centimeters, and there is one method where you can put in feet and inches, and one method where you can put inches. However, it still seems just as easy to make two separate methods for this.</p>

<p>That being said, are there any real benefits to doing this? (I read <a href="https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/135313/when-is-method-overloading-appropriate">this</a>, but I am not really to satisfied. It seems just as easy to make new methods.)</p>