Skip to main content

C++11 - Explicit override and final

Consider following inheritance situation:
Question is: will we have two override_func() functions in derived1 or only one because override_func(double a) from derived1 overrides override_func(int a) from base_class? Two, of course. It is because those functions has different signature (different types of arguments in this case). However sometimes user does not notice it and think that function override_func(double a) overrides function override_func(double a) in derived1 class. It can cause problem especially if someone is doing some modifications in override_func(int a) in base class and expects that those changes will have inpact on override_func(double a) from derived1 class. C++11 has smart mechanism which allow to notify compiler and other users that in derived class we would like to override function having exact the same signature in base class. It can be done using override keyword. Let's declare override_func(double a) in derived1 class this way:
What happend's here? We will have compile because using override function we infor compiler (and users) that we would like to override function having exactly the same signature in base class. In our case base class override_func(int a) has int type argument while in derived1 class we have double type argument. Compiler cannot find exact-signatured function in base class so it throws compiler-error. This mechanism is useful for better controlling overriding in C++11. Second useful new C++11 feature related to inheritance and polymorphism is final keyword. If we label function using final keyword, we notify compiler(and user) that such function cannot be overritten in any derived class. Let's see it on example:
While we are trying compile above example we will receive compile error. It is because function final_func() in base class is labeled as final function, so we cannot override it in derived1 class, but we are trying to do that. We can also label class using final keyword. Such label final class cannot be inherited by any other class. Let's see example:
In above example we will receive compile error, because class base is labelled as final. While we are trying to inhert from that class (derived1 class is trying it) compiler notify incorrectness and notify us about it using error message. That's it for today. If you would like to test above features yourself I prepared simple example of above mechanisms. You can compile it and try to compile and modify. Try to uncomment blocks of code labelled as UNCOMMENT and you will compiler errors and behaviours of program according to above examples. This example you can find here: https://github.com/xmementoit/CppAdventureExamples/tree/master/cpp11/explicitOverrideAndFinal

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

GDB Automatic Deadlock Detector

Have you ever had a problem with detection deadlock between threads in your C/C++ application? Would you like to do that automatically? Try this GDB Automatic Deadlock Detector from my github: GDB Automatic Deadlock Detector Picture source: http://csunplugged.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/deadlock.jpg1286488735

STL - count and count_if algorithms

One of the basic and most useful STL algorithms is algorithm which can be used to count number of elements within selected container according to specified criteria. In order to do that we can use std::count or std::count_if algorithm. std::count (firstElementIterator, lastElementIterator, elementForSearch) - is function which will go through container using firstElementIterator and lastElementIterator and return number of container elements which value is equal elementForSearch std::count_if (firstElementIterator, lastElementIterator, UnaryPredicateFunction) - is function which examine range from firstElementIterator to lastElementIterator and return number of container elements which fulfill UnaryPredicateFunction criteria. UnaryPredicateFunction is function having following signature: bool functionName(const Type& a) . So, count_if returns number of elements where UnaryPredicateFunction returns true for. For better understanding let's take a

Advanced C++ - Stack unwinding

Stack unwinding is normally a concept of removing function entries from call stack (also known as Execution stack, Control stack, Function stack or Run-time stack). Call Stack is a stack data structure that stores active functions' addresses and helps in supporting function call/return mechanism. Every time when a function is called, an entry is made into Call stack which contains the return address of the calling function where the control needs to return after the execution of called function. This entry is called by various names like stack frame , activation frame or activation record. With respect to exception handling , stack Unwinding is a process of linearly searching function call stack to reach exception handler. When an exception occurs, if it is not handled in current function where it is thrown, the function Call Stack is unwound until the control reaches try block and then passes to catch block at the end of try block to handle exception. Also, in this proc