Polymorphism and Typecasting (from Java to C++)

Polymorphism

Virtual Function

Pure Virtual Function
Abstract base classes are something very similar to our CPolygon class of our previous example. The only difference is that in our previous example we have defined a valid area() function with a minimal functionality for objects that were of class CPolygon (like the object poly), whereas in an abstract base classes we could leave that area() member function without implementation at all. This is done by appending =0 (equal to zero) to the function declaration. 

An abstract base CPolygon class could look like this:

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// abstract class CPolygon class CPolygon { protected: int width, height; public: void set_values (int a, int b) { width=a; height=b; } virtual int area () =0; };

Notice how we appended =0 to virtual int area () instead of specifying an implementation for the function. This type of function is called a pure virtual function, and all classes that contain at least one pure virtual function are abstract base classes.

class CPolygon {
  protected:
    int width, height;
  public:
    void set_values (int a, int b)
      { width=a; height=b; }
    virtual int area (void) =0;
    void printarea (void)
      { cout << this->area() << endl; }
  };

Type Casting

dynamic_cast <new_type> (expression)
reinterpret_cast <new_type> (expression)
static_cast <new_type> (expression)
const_cast <new_type> (expression)




dynamic_cast


dynamic_cast can be used only with pointers and references to objects. Its purpose is to ensure that the result of the type conversion is a valid complete object of the requested class.

Therefore, dynamic_cast is always successful when we cast a class to one of its base classes:





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class CBase { };
class CDerived: public CBase { };

CBase b; CBase* pb;
CDerived d; CDerived* pd;

pb = dynamic_cast<CBase*>(&d);     // ok: derived-to-base
pd = dynamic_cast<CDerived*>(&b);  // wrong: base-to-derived 


Upcasting OK 
The second conversion in this piece of code would produce a compilation error since base-to-derived conversions are not allowed with dynamic_cast unless the base class is polymorphic.

When a class is polymorphic, dynamic_cast performs a special checking during runtime to ensure that the expression yields a valid complete object of the requested class:





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// dynamic_cast
#include <iostream>
#include <exception>
using namespace std;

class CBase { virtual void dummy() {} };
class CDerived: public CBase { int a; };

int main () {
  try {
    CBase * pba = new CDerived;
    CBase * pbb = new CBase;
    CDerived * pd;

    pd = dynamic_cast<CDerived*>(pba);
    if (pd==0) cout << "Null pointer on first type-cast" << endl;

    pd = dynamic_cast<CDerived*>(pbb);
    if (pd==0) cout << "Null pointer on second type-cast" << endl;

  } catch (exception& e) {cout << "Exception: " << e.what();}
  return 0;
}
Null pointer on second type-cast



Downcasting Special check 





static_cast
static_cast can perform conversions between pointers to related classes, not only from the derived class to its base, but also from a base class to its derived. This ensures that at least the classes are compatible if the proper object is converted, but no safety check is performed during runtime to check if the object being converted is in fact a full object of the destination type. Therefore, it is up to the programmer to ensure that the conversion is safe. On the other side, the overhead of the type-safety checks of dynamic_cast is avoided (Performance consideration).





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class CBase {};
class CDerived: public CBase {};
CBase * a = new CBase;
CDerived * b = static_cast<CDerived*>(a);



This would be valid, although b would point to an incomplete object of the class and could lead to runtime errors if dereferenced.

static_cast can also be used to perform any other non-pointer conversion (in dynamic_cast, only pointers and reference to the object are allowed)that could also be performed implicitly, like for example standard conversion between fundamental types:





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double d=3.14159265;
int i = static_cast<int>(d); 



Or any conversion between classes with explicit constructors or operator functions as described in "implicit conversions" above.