Author: Alex

In this lesson and the next, we are going to take a closer look at how virtual functions are implemented. While this information is not strictly necessary to effectively use virtual functions, it is interesting. Nevertheless, you can consider both sections optional reading. When a C++ program is executed, it …

Virtual destructors Although C++ provides a default destructor for your classes if you do not provide one yourself, it is sometimes the case that you will want to provide your own destructor (particularly if the class needs to deallocate memory). You should always make your destructors virtual if you’re dealing …

In the previous lesson on pointers and references to the base class of derived objects, we took a look at a number of examples where using pointers or references to a base class had the potential to simplify code. However, in every case, we ran up against the problem that …

In the previous chapter, you learned all about how to use inheritance to derive new classes from existing classes. In this chapter, we are going to focus on one of the most important and powerful aspects of inheritance — virtual functions. But before we discuss what virtual functions are, let’s …

Last chapter, in lesson , we left off talking about the “diamond problem”. In this section, we will resume this discussion. Note: This section is an advanced topic and can be skipped or skimmed if desired. The diamond problem Here is our example from the previous lesson (with some constructors) …

So far, all of the examples of inheritance we’ve presented have been single inheritance — that is, each inherited class has one and only one parent. However, C++ provides the ability to do multiple inheritance. Multiple inheritance enables a derived class to inherit members from more than one parent. Let’s …

In the introduction to inheritance lesson, we mentioned that one of the biggest benefits of using derived classes is the ability to reuse already written code. You can inherit the base class functionality and then add new functionality, modify existing functionality, or hide functionality you don’t want. In this and …

In the previous lessons in this chapter, you’ve learned a bit about how base inheritance works. In all of our examples so far, we’ve used public inheritance. That is, our derived class publicly inherits the base class. In this lesson, we’ll take a closer look at public inheritance, as well …