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^^C++ input/output with files

Input/Output with files

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on Aug 3, 2010 at 10:26am UTC

C++ provides the following classes to perform output and input of characters to/from files:

• ofstream: Stream class to write on files
• ifstream: Stream class to read from files
• fstream: Stream class to both read and write from/to files.

These classes are derived directly or indirectly from the classes istream, and ostream. We have already used objects whose types were these classes: cin is an object of class istream and cout is an object of class ostream. Therfore, we have already been using classes that are related to our file streams. And in fact, we can use our file streams the same way we are already used to use cin and cout, with the only difference that we have to associate these streams with physical files. Let's see an example:

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// basic file operations #include #include using namespace std; int main () { ofstream myfile; myfile.open ("example.txt"); myfile << "Writing this to a file.\n"; myfile.close(); return 0; }

[file example.txt] Writing this to a file.

This code creates a file called example.txt and inserts a sentence into it in the same way we are used to do with cout, but using the file stream myfile instead.

But let's go step by step:

Open a file

The first operation generally performed on an object of one of these classes is to associate it to a real file. This procedure is known as to open a file. An open file is represented within a program by a stream object (an instantiation of one of these classes, in the previous example this was myfile) and any input or output operation performed on this stream object will be applied to the physical file associated to it.

In order to open a file with a stream object we use its member function open():


open (filename, mode);


Where filename is a null-terminated character sequence of type const char * (the same type that string literals have) representing the name of the file to be opened, and mode is an optional parameter with a combination of the following flags:

ios::in	Open for input operations.
ios::out	Open for output operations.
ios::binary	Open in binary mode.
ios::ate	Set the initial position at the end of the file. If this flag is not set to any value, the initial position is the beginning of the file.
ios::app	All output operations are performed at the end of the file, appending the content to the current content of the file. This flag can only be used in streams open for output-only operations.
ios::trunc	If the file opened for output operations already existed before, its previous content is deleted and replaced by the new one.

All these flags can be combined using the bitwise operator OR (|). For example, if we want to open the file example.bin in binary mode to add data we could do it by the following call to member function open():

1 2	ofstream myfile; myfile.open ("example.bin", ios::out | ios::app | ios::binary);

Each one of the open() member functions of the classes ofstream, ifstream and fstream has a default mode that is used if the file is opened without a second argument:

class	default mode parameter
ofstream	ios::out
ifstream	ios::in
fstream	ios::in | ios::out

For ifstream and ofstream classes, ios::in and ios::out are automatically and respectively assumed, even if a mode that does not include them is passed as second argument to the open() member function.

The default value is only applied if the function is called without specifying any value for the mode parameter. If the function is called with any value in that parameter the default mode is overridden, not combined.

File streams opened in binary mode perform input and output operations independently of any format considerations. Non-binary files are known as text files, and some translations may occur due to formatting of some special characters (like newline and carriage return characters).

Since the first task that is performed on a file stream object is generally to open a file, these three classes include a constructor that automatically calls the open() member function and has the exact same parameters as this member. Therefore, we could also have declared the previous myfile object and conducted the same opening operation in our previous example by writing:

ofstream myfile ("example.bin", ios::out | ios::app | ios::binary);

Combining object construction and stream opening in a single statement. Both forms to open a file are valid and equivalent.

To check if a file stream was successful opening a file, you can do it by calling to member is_open() with no arguments. This member function returns a bool value of true in the case that indeed the stream object is associated with an open file, or false otherwise:

if (myfile.is_open()) { /* ok, proceed with output */ }

Closing a file

When we are finished with our input and output operations on a file we shall close it so that its resources become available again. In order to do that we have to call the stream's member function close(). This member function takes no parameters, and what it does is to flush the associated buffers and close the file:

myfile.close();

Once this member function is called, the stream object can be used to open another file, and the file is available again to be opened by other processes.

In case that an object is destructed while still associated with an open file, the destructor automatically calls the member function close().

Text files

Text file streams are those where we do not include the ios::binary flag in their opening mode. These files are designed to store text and thus all values that we input or output from/to them can suffer some formatting transformations, which do not necessarily correspond to their literal binary value.

Data output operations on text files are performed in the same way we operated with cout:

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// writing on a text file #include #include using namespace std; int main () { ofstream myfile ("example.txt"); if (myfile.is_open()) { myfile << "This is a line.\n"; myfile << "This is another line.\n"; myfile.close(); } else cout << "Unable to open file"; return 0; }

[file example.txt] This is a line. This is another line.

Data input from a file can also be performed in the same way that we did with cin:

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// reading a text file #include #include #include using namespace std; int main () { string line; ifstream myfile ("example.txt"); if (myfile.is_open()) { while (! myfile.eof() ) { getline (myfile,line); cout << line << endl; } myfile.close(); } else cout << "Unable to open file"; return 0; }

This is a line. This is another line.

This last example reads a text file and prints out its content on the screen. Notice how we have used a new member function, called eof() that returns true in the case that the end of the file has been reached. We have created a while loop that finishes when indeed myfile.eof() becomes true (i.e., the end of the file has been reached).

Checking state flags

In addition to eof(), which checks if the end of file has been reached, other member functions exist to check the state of a stream (all of them return a bool value):

bad()

Returns true if a reading or writing operation fails. For example in the case that we try to write to a file that is not open for writing or if the device where we try to write has no space left.

fail()

Returns true in the same cases as bad(), but also in the case that a format error happens, like when an alphabetical character is extracted when we are trying to read an integer number.

eof()

Returns true if a file open for reading has reached the end.

good()

It is the most generic state flag: it returns false in the same cases in which calling any of the previous functions would return true.

In order to reset the state flags checked by any of these member functions we have just seen we can use the member function clear(), which takes no parameters.

get and put stream pointers

All i/o streams objects have, at least, one internal stream pointer:

ifstream, like istream, has a pointer known as the get pointer that points to the element to be read in the next input operation.

ofstream, like ostream, has a pointer known as the put pointer that points to the location where the next element has to be written.

Finally, fstream, inherits both, the get and the put pointers, from iostream (which is itself derived from both istream and ostream).

These internal stream pointers that point to the reading or writing locations within a stream can be manipulated using the following member functions:

tellg() and tellp()

These two member functions have no parameters and return a value of the member type pos_type, which is an integer data type representing the current position of the get stream pointer (in the case of tellg) or the put stream pointer (in the case of tellp).

seekg() and seekp()

These functions allow us to change the position of the get and put stream pointers. Both functions are overloaded with two different prototypes. The first prototype is:


seekg ( position );
seekp ( position );


Using this prototype the stream pointer is changed to the absolute position position (counting from the beginning of the file). The type for this parameter is the same as the one returned by functions tellg and tellp: the member type pos_type, which is an integer value.

The other prototype for these functions is:


seekg ( offset, direction );
seekp ( offset, direction );


Using this prototype, the position of the get or put pointer is set to an offset value relative to some specific point determined by the parameter direction. offset is of the member type off_type, which is also an integer type. And direction is of type seekdir, which is an enumerated type (enum) that determines the point from where offset is counted from, and that can take any of the following values:

ios::beg	offset counted from the beginning of the stream
ios::cur	offset counted from the current position of the stream pointer
ios::end	offset counted from the end of the stream

The following example uses the member functions we have just seen to obtain the size of a file:

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// obtaining file size #include #include using namespace std; int main () { long begin,end; ifstream myfile ("example.txt"); begin = myfile.tellg(); myfile.seekg (0, ios::end); end = myfile.tellg(); myfile.close(); cout << "size is: " << (end-begin) << " bytes.\n"; return 0; }

size is: 40 bytes.

Binary files

In binary files, to input and output data with the extraction and insertion operators (<< and >>) and functions like getline is not efficient, since we do not need to format any data, and data may not use the separation codes used by text files to separate elements (like space, newline, etc...).

File streams include two member functions specifically designed to input and output binary data sequentially: write and read. The first one (write) is a member function of ostream inherited by ofstream. And read is a member function of istream that is inherited by ifstream. Objects of class fstream have both members. Their prototypes are:


write ( memory_block, size );
read ( memory_block, size );


Where memory_block is of type "pointer to char" (char*), and represents the address of an array of bytes where the read data elements are stored or from where the data elements to be written are taken. The size parameter is an integer value that specifies the number of characters to be read or written from/to the memory block.

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// reading a complete binary file #include #include using namespace std; ifstream::pos_type size; char * memblock; int main () { ifstream file ("example.bin", ios::in|ios::binary|ios::ate); if (file.is_open()) { size = file.tellg(); memblock = new char [size]; file.seekg (0, ios::beg); file.read (memblock, size); file.close(); cout << "the complete file content is in memory"; delete[] memblock; } else cout << "Unable to open file"; return 0; }

the complete file content is in memory

In this example the entire file is read and stored in a memory block. Let's examine how this is done:

First, the file is open with the ios::ate flag, which means that the get pointer will be positioned at the end of the file. This way, when we call to member tellg(), we will directly obtain the size of the file. Notice the type we have used to declare variable size:

ifstream::pos_type size;

ifstream::pos_type is a specific type used for buffer and file positioning and is the type returned by file.tellg(). This type is defined as an integer type, therefore we can conduct on it the same operations we conduct on any other integer value, and can safely be converted to another integer type large enough to contain the size of the file. For a file with a size under 2GB we could use int:

1 2	int size; size = (int) file.tellg();

Once we have obtained the size of the file, we request the allocation of a memory block large enough to hold the entire file:

memblock = new char[size];

Right after that, we proceed to set the get pointer at the beginning of the file (remember that we opened the file with this pointer at the end), then read the entire file, and finally close it:

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file.seekg (0, ios::beg); file.read (memblock, size); file.close();

At this point we could operate with the data obtained from the file. Our program simply announces that the content of the file is in memory and then terminates.

Buffers and Synchronization

When we operate with file streams, these are associated to an internal buffer of type streambuf. This buffer is a memory block that acts as an intermediary between the stream and the physical file. For example, with an ofstream, each time the member function put (which writes a single character) is called, the character is not written directly to the physical file with which the stream is associated. Instead of that, the character is inserted in that stream's intermediate buffer.

When the buffer is flushed, all the data contained in it is written to the physical medium (if it is an output stream) or simply freed (if it is an input stream). This process is called synchronization and takes place under any of the following circumstances:

• When the file is closed: before closing a file all buffers that have not yet been flushed are synchronized and all pending data is written or read to the physical medium.
• When the buffer is full: Buffers have a certain size. When the buffer is full it is automatically synchronized.
• Explicitly, with manipulators: When certain manipulators are used on streams, an explicit synchronization takes place. These manipulators are: flush and endl.
• Explicitly, with member function sync(): Calling stream's member function sync(), which takes no parameters, causes an immediate synchronization. This function returns an int value equal to -1 if the stream has no associated buffer or in case of failure. Otherwise (if the stream buffer was successfully synchronized) it returns 0.

^^C++ preprocessor directives

Preprocessor directives

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on Mar 3, 2008 at 6:03pm UTC

Preprocessor directives are lines included in the code of our programs that are not program statements but directives for the preprocessor. These lines are always preceded by a hash sign (#). The preprocessor is executed before the actual compilation of code begins, therefore the preprocessor digests all these directives before any code is generated by the statements.

These preprocessor directives extend only across a single line of code. As soon as a newline character is found, the preprocessor directive is considered to end. No semicolon (;) is expected at the end of a preprocessor directive. The only way a preprocessor directive can extend through more than one line is by preceding the newline character at the end of the line by a backslash (\).

macro definitions (#define, #undef)

To define preprocessor macros we can use #define. Its format is:


#define identifier replacement


When the preprocessor encounters this directive, it replaces any occurrence of identifier in the rest of the code by replacement. This replacement can be an expression, a statement, a block or simply anything. The preprocessor does not understand C++, it simply replaces any occurrence of identifier by replacement.

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#define TABLE_SIZE 100 int table1[TABLE_SIZE]; int table2[TABLE_SIZE];

After the preprocessor has replaced TABLE_SIZE, the code becomes equivalent to:

1 2	int table1[100]; int table2[100];

This use of #define as constant definer is already known by us from previous tutorials, but #define can work also with parameters to define function macros:

#define getmax(a,b) a>b?a:b

This would replace any occurrence of getmax followed by two arguments by the replacement expression, but also replacing each argument by its identifier, exactly as you would expect if it was a function:

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// function macro #include using namespace std; #define getmax(a,b) ((a)>(b)?(a):(b)) int main() { int x=5, y; y= getmax(x,2); cout << y << endl; cout << getmax(7,x) << endl; return 0; }

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Defined macros are not affected by block structure. A macro lasts until it is undefined with the #undef preprocessor directive:

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#define TABLE_SIZE 100 int table1[TABLE_SIZE]; #undef TABLE_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE 200 int table2[TABLE_SIZE];

This would generate the same code as:

1 2	int table1[100]; int table2[200];

Function macro definitions accept two special operators (# and ##) in the replacement sequence:
If the operator # is used before a parameter is used in the replacement sequence, that parameter is replaced by a string literal (as if it were enclosed between double quotes)

1 2	#define str(x) #x cout << str(test);

This would be translated into:

cout << "test";

The operator ## concatenates two arguments leaving no blank spaces between them:

1 2	#define glue(a,b) a ## b glue(c,out) << "test";

This would also be translated into:

cout << "test";

Because preprocessor replacements happen before any C++ syntax check, macro definitions can be a tricky feature, but be careful: code that relies heavily on complicated macros may result obscure to other programmers, since the syntax they expect is on many occasions different from the regular expressions programmers expect in C++.

Conditional inclusions (#ifdef, #ifndef, #if, #endif, #else and #elif)

These directives allow to include or discard part of the code of a program if a certain condition is met.

#ifdef allows a section of a program to be compiled only if the macro that is specified as the parameter has been defined, no matter which its value is. For example:

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#ifdef TABLE_SIZE int table[TABLE_SIZE]; #endif

In this case, the line of code int table[TABLE_SIZE]; is only compiled if TABLE_SIZE was previously defined with #define, independently of its value. If it was not defined, that line will not be included in the program compilation.

#ifndef serves for the exact opposite: the code between #ifndef and #endif directives is only compiled if the specified identifier has not been previously defined. For example:

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#ifndef TABLE_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE 100 #endif int table[TABLE_SIZE];

In this case, if when arriving at this piece of code, the TABLE_SIZE macro has not been defined yet, it would be defined to a value of 100. If it already existed it would keep its previous value since the #define directive would not be executed.

The #if, #else and #elif (i.e., "else if") directives serve to specify some condition to be met in order for the portion of code they surround to be compiled. The condition that follows #if or #elif can only evaluate constant expressions, including macro expressions. For example:

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#if TABLE_SIZE>200 #undef TABLE_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE 200 #elif TABLE_SIZE<50 #undef TABLE_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE 50 #else #undef TABLE_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE 100 #endif int table[TABLE_SIZE];

Notice how the whole structure of #if, #elif and #else chained directives ends with #endif.

The behavior of #ifdef and #ifndef can also be achieved by using the special operators defined and !defined respectively in any #if or #elif directive:

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#if !defined TABLE_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE 100 #elif defined ARRAY_SIZE #define TABLE_SIZE ARRAY_SIZE int table[TABLE_SIZE];

Line control (#line)

When we compile a program and some error happen during the compiling process, the compiler shows an error message with references to the name of the file where the error happened and a line number, so it is easier to find the code generating the error.

The #line directive allows us to control both things, the line numbers within the code files as well as the file name that we want that appears when an error takes place. Its format is:


#line number "filename"


Where number is the new line number that will be assigned to the next code line. The line numbers of successive lines will be increased one by one from this point on.

"filename" is an optional parameter that allows to redefine the file name that will be shown. For example:

1 2	#line 20 "assigning variable" int a?;

This code will generate an error that will be shown as error in file "assigning variable", line 20.

Error directive (#error)

This directive aborts the compilation process when it is found, generating a compilation the error that can be specified as its parameter:

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#ifndef __cplusplus #error A C++ compiler is required! #endif

This example aborts the compilation process if the macro name __cplusplus is not defined (this macro name is defined by default in all C++ compilers).

Source file inclusion (#include)

This directive has also been used assiduously in other sections of this tutorial. When the preprocessor finds an #include directive it replaces it by the entire content of the specified file. There are two ways to specify a file to be included:

1 2	#include "file" #include

The only difference between both expressions is the places (directories) where the compiler is going to look for the file. In the first case where the file name is specified between double-quotes, the file is searched first in the same directory that includes the file containing the directive. In case that it is not there, the compiler searches the file in the default directories where it is configured to look for the standard header files.
If the file name is enclosed between angle-brackets <> the file is searched directly where the compiler is configured to look for the standard header files. Therefore, standard header files are usually included in angle-brackets, while other specific header files are included using quotes.

Pragma directive (#pragma)

This directive is used to specify diverse options to the compiler. These options are specific for the platform and the compiler you use. Consult the manual or the reference of your compiler for more information on the possible parameters that you can define with #pragma.

If the compiler does not support a specific argument for #pragma, it is ignored - no error is generated.

Predefined macro names

The following macro names are defined at any time:

macro	value
__LINE__	Integer value representing the current line in the source code file being compiled.
__FILE__	A string literal containing the presumed name of the source file being compiled.
__DATE__	A string literal in the form "Mmm dd yyyy" containing the date in which the compilation process began.
__TIME__	A string literal in the form "hh:mm:ss" containing the time at which the compilation process began.
__cplusplus	An integer value. All C++ compilers have this constant defined to some value. If the compiler is fully compliant with the C++ standard its value is equal or greater than 199711L depending on the version of the standard they comply.

For example:

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// standard macro names #include using namespace std; int main() { cout << "This is the line number " << __LINE__; cout << " of file " << __FILE__ << ".\n"; cout << "Its compilation began " << __DATE__; cout << " at " << __TIME__ << ".\n"; cout << "The compiler gives a __cplusplus value of " << __cplusplus; return 0; }

^^C++ type casting

Type Casting

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on Jun 8, 2007 at 9:46am UTC

Converting an expression of a given type into another type is known as type-casting. We have already seen some ways to type cast:

Implicit conversion

Implicit conversions do not require any operator. They are automatically performed when a value is copied to a compatible type. For example:

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short a=2000; int b; b=a;

Here, the value of a has been promoted from short to int and we have not had to specify any type-casting operator. This is known as a standard conversion. Standard conversions affect fundamental data types, and allow conversions such as the conversions between numerical types (short to int, int to float, double to int...), to or from bool, and some pointer conversions. Some of these conversions may imply a loss of precision, which the compiler can signal with a warning. This can be avoided with an explicit conversion.

Implicit conversions also include constructor or operator conversions, which affect classes that include specific constructors or operator functions to perform conversions. For example:

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class A {}; class B { public: B (A a) {} }; A a; B b=a;

Here, a implicit conversion happened between objects of class A and class B, because B has a constructor that takes an object of class A as parameter. Therefore implicit conversions from A to B are allowed.

Explicit conversion

C++ is a strong-typed language. Many conversions, specially those that imply a different interpretation of the value, require an explicit conversion. We have already seen two notations for explicit type conversion: functional and c-like casting:

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short a=2000; int b; b = (int) a; // c-like cast notation b = int (a); // functional notation

The functionality of these explicit conversion operators is enough for most needs with fundamental data types. However, these operators can be applied indiscriminately on classes and pointers to classes, which can lead to code that while being syntactically correct can cause runtime errors. For example, the following code is syntactically correct:

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// class type-casting #include using namespace std; class CDummy { float i,j; }; class CAddition { int x,y; public: CAddition (int a, int b) { x=a; y=b; } int result() { return x+y;} }; int main () { CDummy d; CAddition * padd; padd = (CAddition*) &d; cout << padd->result(); return 0; }

The program declares a pointer to CAddition, but then it assigns to it a reference to an object of another incompatible type using explicit type-casting:

padd = (CAddition*) &d;

Traditional explicit type-casting allows to convert any pointer into any other pointer type, independently of the types they point to. The subsequent call to member result will produce either a run-time error or a unexpected result.

In order to control these types of conversions between classes, we have four specific casting operators: dynamic_cast, reinterpret_cast, static_cast and const_cast. Their format is to follow the new type enclosed between angle-brackets (<>) and immediately after, the expression to be converted between parentheses.


dynamic_cast (expression)
reinterpret_cast (expression)
static_cast (expression)
const_cast (expression)


The traditional type-casting equivalents to these expressions would be:


(new_type) expression
new_type (expression)


but each one with its own special characteristics:

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(&d); // ok: derived-to-base pd = dynamic_cast(&b); // wrong: base-to-derived

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

Compatibility note: dynamic_cast requires the Run-Time Type Information (RTTI) to keep track of dynamic types. Some compilers support this feature as an option which is disabled by default. This must be enabled for runtime type checking using dynamic_cast to work properly.

The code tries to perform two dynamic casts from pointer objects of type CBase* (pba and pbb) to a pointer object of type CDerived*, but only the first one is successful. Notice their respective initializations:

1 2	CBase * pba = new CDerived; CBase * pbb = new CBase;

Even though both are pointers of type CBase*, pba points to an object of type CDerived, while pbb points to an object of type CBase. Thus, when their respective type-castings are performed using dynamic_cast, pba is pointing to a full object of class CDerived, whereas pbb is pointing to an object of class CBase, which is an incomplete object of class CDerived.

When dynamic_cast cannot cast a pointer because it is not a complete object of the required class -as in the second conversion in the previous example- it returns a null pointer to indicate the failure. If dynamic_cast is used to convert to a reference type and the conversion is not possible, an exception of type bad_cast is thrown instead.

dynamic_cast can also cast null pointers even between pointers to unrelated classes, and can also cast pointers of any type to void pointers (void*).

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.

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class CBase {}; class CDerived: public CBase {}; CBase * a = new CBase; CDerived * b = static_cast(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 that could also be performed implicitly, like for example standard conversion between fundamental types:

1 2	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.

reinterpret_cast

reinterpret_cast converts any pointer type to any other pointer type, even of unrelated classes. The operation result is a simple binary copy of the value from one pointer to the other. All pointer conversions are allowed: neither the content pointed nor the pointer type itself is checked.

It can also cast pointers to or from integer types. The format in which this integer value represents a pointer is platform-specific. The only guarantee is that a pointer cast to an integer type large enough to fully contain it, is granted to be able to be cast back to a valid pointer.

The conversions that can be performed by reinterpret_cast but not by static_cast have no specific uses in C++ are low-level operations, whose interpretation results in code which is generally system-specific, and thus non-portable. For example:

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class A {}; class B {}; A * a = new A; B * b = reinterpret_cast(a);

This is valid C++ code, although it does not make much sense, since now we have a pointer that points to an object of an incompatible class, and thus dereferencing it is unsafe.

const_cast

This type of casting manipulates the constness of an object, either to be set or to be removed. For example, in order to pass a const argument to a function that expects a non-constant parameter:

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// const_cast #include using namespace std; void print (char * str) { cout << str << endl; } int main () { const char * c = "sample text"; print ( const_cast<char *> (c) ); return 0; }

sample text

typeid

typeid allows to check the type of an expression:


typeid (expression)


This operator returns a reference to a constant object of type type_info that is defined in the standard header file . This returned value can be compared with another one using operators == and != or can serve to obtain a null-terminated character sequence representing the data type or class name by using its name() member.

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// typeid #include #include using namespace std; int main () { int * a,b; a=0; b=0; if (typeid(a) != typeid(b)) { cout << "a and b are of different types:\n"; cout << "a is: " << typeid(a).name() << '\n'; cout << "b is: " << typeid(b).name() << '\n'; } return 0; }

a and b are of different types: a is: int * b is: int

When typeid is applied to classes typeid uses the RTTI to keep track of the type of dynamic objects. When typeid is applied to an expression whose type is a polymorphic class, the result is the type of the most derived complete object:

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// typeid, polymorphic class #include #include #include using namespace std; class CBase { virtual void f(){} }; class CDerived : public CBase {}; int main () { try { CBase* a = new CBase; CBase* b = new CDerived; cout << "a is: " << typeid(a).name() << '\n'; cout << "b is: " << typeid(b).name() << '\n'; cout << "*a is: " << typeid(*a).name() << '\n'; cout << "*b is: " << typeid(*b).name() << '\n'; } catch (exception& e) { cout << "Exception: " << e.what() << endl; } return 0; }

a is: class CBase * b is: class CBase * *a is: class CBase *b is: class CDerived

Notice how the type that typeid considers for pointers is the pointer type itself (both a and b are of type class CBase *). However, when typeid is applied to objects (like *a and *b) typeid yields their dynamic type (i.e. the type of their most derived complete object).

If the type typeid evaluates is a pointer preceded by the dereference operator (*), and this pointer has a null value, typeid throws a bad_typeid exception.

^^C++ expections

Exceptions

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on Nov 20, 2007 at 9:17am UTC

Exceptions provide a way to react to exceptional circumstances (like runtime errors) in our program by transferring control to special functions called handlers.

To catch exceptions we must place a portion of code under exception inspection. This is done by enclosing that portion of code in a try block. When an exceptional circumstance arises within that block, an exception is thrown that transfers the control to the exception handler. If no exception is thrown, the code continues normally and all handlers are ignored.

A exception is thrown by using the throw keyword from inside the try block. Exception handlers are declared with the keyword catch, which must be placed immediately after the try block:

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// exceptions #include using namespace std; int main () { try { throw 20; } catch (int e) { cout << "An exception occurred. Exception Nr. " << e << endl; } return 0; }

An exception occurred. Exception Nr. 20

The code under exception handling is enclosed in a try block. In this example this code simply throws an exception:

throw 20;

A throw expression accepts one parameter (in this case the integer value 20), which is passed as an argument to the exception handler.

The exception handler is declared with the catch keyword. As you can see, it follows immediately the closing brace of the try block. The catch format is similar to a regular function that always has at least one parameter. The type of this parameter is very important, since the type of the argument passed by the throw expression is checked against it, and only in the case they match, the exception is caught.

We can chain multiple handlers (catch expressions), each one with a different parameter type. Only the handler that matches its type with the argument specified in the throw statement is executed.

If we use an ellipsis (...) as the parameter of catch, that handler will catch any exception no matter what the type of the throw exception is. This can be used as a default handler that catches all exceptions not caught by other handlers if it is specified at last:

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try { // code here } catch (int param) { cout << "int exception"; } catch (char param) { cout << "char exception"; } catch (...) { cout << "default exception"; }

In this case the last handler would catch any exception thrown with any parameter that is neither an int nor a char.

After an exception has been handled the program execution resumes after the try-catch block, not after the throw statement!.

It is also possible to nest try-catch blocks within more external try blocks. In these cases, we have the possibility that an internal catch block forwards the exception to its external level. This is done with the expression throw; with no arguments. For example:

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try { try { // code here } catch (int n) { throw; } } catch (...) { cout << "Exception occurred"; }

Exception specifications

When declaring a function we can limit the exception type it might directly or indirectly throw by appending a throw suffix to the function declaration:

float myfunction (char param) throw (int);

This declares a function called myfunction which takes one agument of type char and returns an element of type float. The only exception that this function might throw is an exception of type int. If it throws an exception with a different type, either directly or indirectly, it cannot be caught by a regular int-type handler.

If this throw specifier is left empty with no type, this means the function is not allowed to throw exceptions. Functions with no throw specifier (regular functions) are allowed to throw exceptions with any type:

1 2	int myfunction (int param) throw(); // no exceptions allowed int myfunction (int param); // all exceptions allowed

Standard exceptions

The C++ Standard library provides a base class specifically designed to declare objects to be thrown as exceptions. It is called exception and is defined in the header file under the namespace std. This class has the usual default and copy constructors, operators and destructors, plus an additional virtual member function called what that returns a null-terminated character sequence (char *) and that can be overwritten in derived classes to contain some sort of description of the exception.

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// standard exceptions #include #include using namespace std; class myexception: public exception { virtual const char* what() const throw() { return "My exception happened"; } } myex; int main () { try { throw myex; } catch (exception& e) { cout << e.what() << endl; } return 0; }

My exception happened.

We have placed a handler that catches exception objects by reference (notice the ampersand & after the type), therefore this catches also classes derived from exception, like our myex object of class myexception.

All exceptions thrown by components of the C++ Standard library throw exceptions derived from this std::exception class. These are:

exception	description
bad_alloc	thrown by new on allocation failure
bad_cast	thrown by dynamic_cast when fails with a referenced type
bad_exception	thrown when an exception type doesn't match any catch
bad_typeid	thrown by typeid
ios_base::failure	thrown by functions in the iostream library

For example, if we use the operator new and the memory cannot be allocated, an exception of type bad_alloc is thrown:

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try { int * myarray= new int[1000]; } catch (bad_alloc&) { cout << "Error allocating memory." << endl; }

It is recommended to include all dynamic memory allocations within a try block that catches this type of exception to perform a clean action instead of an abnormal program termination, which is what happens when this type of exception is thrown and not caught. If you want to force a bad_alloc exception to see it in action, you can try to allocate a huge array; On my system, trying to allocate 1 billion ints threw a bad_alloc exception.

Because bad_alloc is derived from the standard base class exception, we can handle that same exception by catching references to the exception class:

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// bad_alloc standard exception #include #include using namespace std; int main () { try { int* myarray= new int[1000]; } catch (exception& e) { cout << "Standard exception: " << e.what() << endl; } return 0; }

^^C ++ namespaces

Namespaces

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on Feb 2, 2007 at 2:01pm UTC

Namespaces allow to group entities like classes, objects and functions under a name. This way the global scope can be divided in "sub-scopes", each one with its own name.

The format of namespaces is:


namespace identifier
{
entities
}


Where identifier is any valid identifier and entities is the set of classes, objects and functions that are included within the namespace. For example:

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namespace myNamespace { int a, b; }

In this case, the variables a and b are normal variables declared within a namespace called myNamespace. In order to access these variables from outside the myNamespace namespace we have to use the scope operator ::. For example, to access the previous variables from outside myNamespace we can write:

1 2	myNamespace::a myNamespace::b

The functionality of namespaces is especially useful in the case that there is a possibility that a global object or function uses the same identifier as another one, causing redefinition errors. For example:

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// namespaces #include using namespace std; namespace first { int var = 5; } namespace second { double var = 3.1416; } int main () { cout << first::var << endl; cout << second::var << endl; return 0; }

5 3.1416

In this case, there are two global variables with the same name: var. One is defined within the namespace first and the other one in second. No redefinition errors happen thanks to namespaces.

using

The keyword using is used to introduce a name from a namespace into the current declarative region. For example:

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// using #include using namespace std; namespace first { int x = 5; int y = 10; } namespace second { double x = 3.1416; double y = 2.7183; } int main () { using first::x; using second::y; cout << x << endl; cout << y << endl; cout << first::y << endl; cout << second::x << endl; return 0; }

5 2.7183 10 3.1416

Notice how in this code, x (without any name qualifier) refers to first::x whereas y refers to second::y, exactly as our using declarations have specified. We still have access to first::y and second::x using their fully qualified names.

The keyword using can also be used as a directive to introduce an entire namespace:

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// using #include using namespace std; namespace first { int x = 5; int y = 10; } namespace second { double x = 3.1416; double y = 2.7183; } int main () { using namespace first; cout << x << endl; cout << y << endl; cout << second::x << endl; cout << second::y << endl; return 0; }

5 10 3.1416 2.7183

In this case, since we have declared that we were using namespace first, all direct uses of x and y without name qualifiers were referring to their declarations in namespace first.

using and using namespace have validity only in the same block in which they are stated or in the entire code if they are used directly in the global scope. For example, if we had the intention to first use the objects of one namespace and then those of another one, we could do something like:

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// using namespace example #include using namespace std; namespace first { int x = 5; } namespace second { double x = 3.1416; } int main () { { using namespace first; cout << x << endl; } { using namespace second; cout << x << endl; } return 0; }

5 3.1416

Namespace alias

We can declare alternate names for existing namespaces according to the following format:


namespace new_name = current_name;

Namespace std

All the files in the C++ standard library declare all of its entities within the std namespace. That is why we have generally included the using namespace std; statement in all programs that used any entity defined in iostream.

^^C++ Templates

Templates

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on Nov 16, 2007 at 9:36am UTC

Function templates

Function templates are special functions that can operate with generic types. This allows us to create a function template whose functionality can be adapted to more than one type or class without repeating the entire code for each type.

In C++ this can be achieved using template parameters. A template parameter is a special kind of parameter that can be used to pass a type as argument: just like regular function parameters can be used to pass values to a function, template parameters allow to pass also types to a function. These function templates can use these parameters as if they were any other regular type.

The format for declaring function templates with type parameters is:


template function_declaration;
template function_declaration;


The only difference between both prototypes is the use of either the keyword class or the keyword typename. Its use is indistinct, since both expressions have exactly the same meaning and behave exactly the same way.

For example, to create a template function that returns the greater one of two objects we could use:

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template <class myType> myType GetMax (myType a, myType b) { return (a>b?a:b); }

Here we have created a template function with myType as its template parameter. This template parameter represents a type that has not yet been specified, but that can be used in the template function as if it were a regular type. As you can see, the function template GetMax returns the greater of two parameters of this still-undefined type.

To use this function template we use the following format for the function call:


function_name (parameters);


For example, to call GetMax to compare two integer values of type int we can write:

1 2	int x,y; GetMax <int> (x,y);

When the compiler encounters this call to a template function, it uses the template to automatically generate a function replacing each appearance of myType by the type passed as the actual template parameter (int in this case) and then calls it. This process is automatically performed by the compiler and is invisible to the programmer.

Here is the entire example:

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// function template #include using namespace std; template <class T> T GetMax (T a, T b) { T result; result = (a>b)? a : b; return (result); } int main () { int i=5, j=6, k; long l=10, m=5, n; k=GetMax<int>(i,j); n=GetMax<long>(l,m); cout << k << endl; cout << n << endl; return 0; }

6 10

In this case, we have used T as the template parameter name instead of myType because it is shorter and in fact is a very common template parameter name. But you can use any identifier you like.

In the example above we used the function template GetMax() twice. The first time with arguments of type int and the second one with arguments of type long. The compiler has instantiated and then called each time the appropriate version of the function.

As you can see, the type T is used within the GetMax() template function even to declare new objects of that type:

T result;

Therefore, result will be an object of the same type as the parameters a and b when the function template is instantiated with a specific type.

In this specific case where the generic type T is used as a parameter for GetMax the compiler can find out automatically which data type has to instantiate without having to explicitly specify it within angle brackets (like we have done before specifying and ). So we could have written instead:

1 2	int i,j; GetMax (i,j);

Since both i and j are of type int, and the compiler can automatically find out that the template parameter can only be int. This implicit method produces exactly the same result:

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// function template II #include using namespace std; template <class T> T GetMax (T a, T b) { return (a>b?a:b); } int main () { int i=5, j=6, k; long l=10, m=5, n; k=GetMax(i,j); n=GetMax(l,m); cout << k << endl; cout << n << endl; return 0; }

6 10

Notice how in this case, we called our function template GetMax() without explicitly specifying the type between angle-brackets <>. The compiler automatically determines what type is needed on each call.

Because our template function includes only one template parameter (class T) and the function template itself accepts two parameters, both of this T type, we cannot call our function template with two objects of different types as arguments:

1 2 3

int i; long l; k = GetMax (i,l);

This would not be correct, since our GetMax function template expects two arguments of the same type, and in this call to it we use objects of two different types.

We can also define function templates that accept more than one type parameter, simply by specifying more template parameters between the angle brackets. For example:

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template <class T, class U> T GetMin (T a, U b) { return (a }

In this case, our function template GetMin() accepts two parameters of different types and returns an object of the same type as the first parameter (T) that is passed. For example, after that declaration we could call GetMin() with:

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int i,j; long l; i = GetMin<int,long> (j,l);

or simply:

i = GetMin (j,l);

even though j and l have different types, since the compiler can determine the appropriate instantiation anyway.

Class templates

We also have the possibility to write class templates, so that a class can have members that use template parameters as types. For example:

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template <class T> class mypair { T values [2]; public: mypair (T first, T second) { values[0]=first; values[1]=second; } };

The class that we have just defined serves to store two elements of any valid type. For example, if we wanted to declare an object of this class to store two integer values of type int with the values 115 and 36 we would write:

mypair<int> myobject (115, 36);

this same class would also be used to create an object to store any other type:

mypair<double> myfloats (3.0, 2.18);

The only member function in the previous class template has been defined inline within the class declaration itself. In case that we define a function member outside the declaration of the class template, we must always precede that definition with the template <...> prefix:

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// class templates #include using namespace std; template <class T> class mypair { T a, b; public: mypair (T first, T second) {a=first; b=second;} T getmax (); }; template <class T> T mypair::getmax () { T retval; retval = a>b? a : b; return retval; } int main () { mypair <int> myobject (100, 75); cout << myobject.getmax(); return 0; }

100

Notice the syntax of the definition of member function getmax:

1 2	template <class T> T mypair::getmax ()

Confused by so many T's? There are three T's in this declaration: The first one is the template parameter. The second T refers to the type returned by the function. And the third T (the one between angle brackets) is also a requirement: It specifies that this function's template parameter is also the class template parameter.

Template specialization

If we want to define a different implementation for a template when a specific type is passed as template parameter, we can declare a specialization of that template.

For example, let's suppose that we have a very simple class called mycontainer that can store one element of any type and that it has just one member function called increase, which increases its value. But we find that when it stores an element of type char it would be more convenient to have a completely different implementation with a function member uppercase, so we decide to declare a class template specialization for that type:

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// template specialization #include using namespace std; // class template: template <class T> class mycontainer { T element; public: mycontainer (T arg) {element=arg;} T increase () {return ++element;} }; // class template specialization: template <> class mycontainer <char> { char element; public: mycontainer (char arg) {element=arg;} char uppercase () { if ((element>='a')&&(element<='z')) element+='A'-'a'; return element; } }; int main () { mycontainer<int> myint (7); mycontainer<char> mychar ('j'); cout << myint.increase() << endl; cout << mychar.uppercase() << endl; return 0; }

8 J

This is the syntax used in the class template specialization:

template <> class mycontainer <char> { ... };

First of all, notice that we precede the class template name with an emptytemplate<> parameter list. This is to explicitly declare it as a template specialization.

But more important than this prefix, is the specialization parameter after the class template name. This specialization parameter itself identifies the type for which we are going to declare a template class specialization (char). Notice the differences between the generic class template and the specialization:

1 2	template <class T> class mycontainer { ... }; template <> class mycontainer <char> { ... };

The first line is the generic template, and the second one is the specialization.

When we declare specializations for a template class, we must also define all its members, even those exactly equal to the generic template class, because there is no "inheritance" of members from the generic template to the specialization.

Non-type parameters for templates

Besides the template arguments that are preceded by the class or typename keywords , which represent types, templates can also have regular typed parameters, similar to those found in functions. As an example, have a look at this class template that is used to contain sequences of elements:

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// sequence template #include using namespace std; template <class T, int N> class mysequence { T memblock [N]; public: void setmember (int x, T value); T getmember (int x); }; template <class T, int N> void mysequence::setmember (int x, T value) { memblock[x]=value; } template <class T, int N> T mysequence::getmember (int x) { return memblock[x]; } int main () { mysequence <int,5> myints; mysequence <double,5> myfloats; myints.setmember (0,100); myfloats.setmember (3,3.1416); cout << myints.getmember(0) << '\n'; cout << myfloats.getmember(3) << '\n'; return 0; }

100 3.1416

It is also possible to set default values or types for class template parameters. For example, if the previous class template definition had been:

template <class T=char, int N=10> class mysequence {..};

We could create objects using the default template parameters by declaring:

mysequence<> myseq;

Which would be equivalent to:

mysequence<char,10> myseq;

Templates and multiple-file projects

From the point of view of the compiler, templates are not normal functions or classes. They are compiled on demand, meaning that the code of a template function is not compiled until an instantiation with specific template arguments is required. At that moment, when an instantiation is required, the compiler generates a function specifically for those arguments from the template.

When projects grow it is usual to split the code of a program in different source code files. In these cases, the interface and implementation are generally separated. Taking a library of functions as example, the interface generally consists of declarations of the prototypes of all the functions that can be called. These are generally declared in a "header file" with a .h extension, and the implementation (the definition of these functions) is in an independent file with c++ code.

Because templates are compiled when required, this forces a restriction for multi-file projects: the implementation (definition) of a template class or function must be in the same file as its declaration. That means that we cannot separate the interface in a separate header file, and that we must include both interface and implementation in any file that uses the templates.

Since no code is generated until a template is instantiated when required, compilers are prepared to allow the inclusion more than once of the same template file with both declarations and definitions in a project without generating linkage errors.

`^^C++ polymorphsim

Polymorphism

Published by Juan Soulie
Last update on May 25, 2009 at 10:44am UTC

Before getting into this section, it is recommended that you have a proper understanding of pointers and class inheritance. If any of the following statements seem strange to you, you should review the indicated sections:

Statement:	Explained in:
int a::b(int c) { }	Classes
a->b	Data Structures
class a: public b { };	Friendship and inheritance

Pointers to base class

One of the key features of derived classes is that a pointer to a derived class is type-compatible with a pointer to its base class. Polymorphism is the art of taking advantage of this simple but powerful and versatile feature, that brings Object Oriented Methodologies to its full potential.

We are going to start by rewriting our program about the rectangle and the triangle of the previous section taking into consideration this pointer compatibility property:

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// pointers to base class #include using namespace std; class CPolygon { protected: int width, height; public: void set_values (int a, int b) { width=a; height=b; } }; class CRectangle: public CPolygon { public: int area () { return (width * height); } }; class CTriangle: public CPolygon { public: int area () { return (width * height / 2); } }; int main () { CRectangle rect; CTriangle trgl; CPolygon * ppoly1 = &rect; CPolygon * ppoly2 = &trgl; ppoly1->set_values (4,5); ppoly2->set_values (4,5); cout << rect.area() << endl; cout << trgl.area() << endl; return 0; }

20 10

In function main, we create two pointers that point to objects of class CPolygon (ppoly1 and ppoly2). Then we assign references to rect and trgl to these pointers, and because both are objects of classes derived from CPolygon, both are valid assignment operations.

The only limitation in using *ppoly1 and *ppoly2 instead of rect and trgl is that both *ppoly1 and *ppoly2 are of type CPolygon* and therefore we can only use these pointers to refer to the members that CRectangle and CTriangle inherit from CPolygon. For that reason when we call the area() members at the end of the program we have had to use directly the objects rect and trgl instead of the pointers *ppoly1 and *ppoly2.

In order to use area() with the pointers to class CPolygon, this member should also have been declared in the class CPolygon, and not only in its derived classes, but the problem is that CRectangle and CTriangle implement different versions of area, therefore we cannot implement it in the base class. This is when virtual members become handy:

Virtual members

A member of a class that can be redefined in its derived classes is known as a virtual member. In order to declare a member of a class as virtual, we must precede its declaration with the keyword virtual:

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// virtual members #include using namespace std; class CPolygon { protected: int width, height; public: void set_values (int a, int b) { width=a; height=b; } virtual int area () { return (0); } }; class CRectangle: public CPolygon { public: int area () { return (width * height); } }; class CTriangle: public CPolygon { public: int area () { return (width * height / 2); } }; int main () { CRectangle rect; CTriangle trgl; CPolygon poly; CPolygon * ppoly1 = &rect; CPolygon * ppoly2 = &trgl; CPolygon * ppoly3 = &poly; ppoly1->set_values (4,5); ppoly2->set_values (4,5); ppoly3->set_values (4,5); cout << ppoly1->area() << endl; cout << ppoly2->area() << endl; cout << ppoly3->area() << endl; return 0; }

20 10 0

Now the three classes (CPolygon, CRectangle and CTriangle) have all the same members: width, height, set_values() and area().

The member function area() has been declared as virtual in the base class because it is later redefined in each derived class. You can verify if you want that if you remove this virtual keyword from the declaration of area() within CPolygon, and then you run the program the result will be 0 for the three polygons instead of 20, 10 and 0. That is because instead of calling the corresponding area() function for each object (CRectangle::area(), CTriangle::area() and CPolygon::area(), respectively), CPolygon::area() will be called in all cases since the calls are via a pointer whose type is CPolygon*.

Therefore, what the virtual keyword does is to allow a member of a derived class with the same name as one in the base class to be appropriately called from a pointer, and more precisely when the type of the pointer is a pointer to the base class but is pointing to an object of the derived class, as in the above example.

A class that declares or inherits a virtual function is called a polymorphic class.

Note that despite of its virtuality, we have also been able to declare an object of type CPolygon and to call its own area() function, which always returns 0.

Abstract base classes

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:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

// 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.

The main difference between an abstract base class and a regular polymorphic class is that because in abstract base classes at least one of its members lacks implementation we cannot create instances (objects) of it.

But a class that cannot instantiate objects is not totally useless. We can create pointers to it and take advantage of all its polymorphic abilities. Therefore a declaration like:

CPolygon poly;

would not be valid for the abstract base class we have just declared, because tries to instantiate an object. Nevertheless, the following pointers:

1 2	CPolygon * ppoly1; CPolygon * ppoly2;

would be perfectly valid.

This is so for as long as CPolygon includes a pure virtual function and therefore it's an abstract base class. However, pointers to this abstract base class can be used to point to objects of derived classes.

Here you have the complete example:

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// abstract base class #include using namespace std; class CPolygon { protected: int width, height; public: void set_values (int a, int b) { width=a; height=b; } virtual int area (void) =0; }; class CRectangle: public CPolygon { public: int area (void) { return (width * height); } }; class CTriangle: public CPolygon { public: int area (void) { return (width * height / 2); } }; int main () { CRectangle rect; CTriangle trgl; CPolygon * ppoly1 = &rect; CPolygon * ppoly2 = &trgl; ppoly1->set_values (4,5); ppoly2->set_values (4,5); cout << ppoly1->area() << endl; cout << ppoly2->area() << endl; return 0; }

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If you review the program you will notice that we refer to objects of different but related classes using a unique type of pointer (CPolygon*). This can be tremendously useful. For example, now we can create a function member of the abstract base class CPolygon that is able to print on screen the result of the area() function even though CPolygon itself has no implementation for this function:

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// pure virtual members can be called // from the abstract base class #include using namespace std; 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; } }; class CRectangle: public CPolygon { public: int area (void) { return (width * height); } }; class CTriangle: public CPolygon { public: int area (void) { return (width * height / 2); } }; int main () { CRectangle rect; CTriangle trgl; CPolygon * ppoly1 = &rect; CPolygon * ppoly2 = &trgl; ppoly1->set_values (4,5); ppoly2->set_values (4,5); ppoly1->printarea(); ppoly2->printarea(); return 0; }

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Virtual members and abstract classes grant C++ the polymorphic characteristics that make object-oriented programming such a useful instrument in big projects. Of course, we have seen very simple uses of these features, but these features can be applied to arrays of objects or dynamically allocated objects.

Let's end with the same example again, but this time with objects that are dynamically allocated:

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// dynamic allocation and polymorphism #include using namespace std; 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; } }; class CRectangle: public CPolygon { public: int area (void) { return (width * height); } }; class CTriangle: public CPolygon { public: int area (void) { return (width * height / 2); } }; int main () { CPolygon * ppoly1 = new CRectangle; CPolygon * ppoly2 = new CTriangle; ppoly1->set_values (4,5); ppoly2->set_values (4,5); ppoly1->printarea(); ppoly2->printarea(); delete ppoly1; delete ppoly2; return 0; }

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Notice that the ppoly pointers:

1 2	CPolygon * ppoly1 = new CRectangle; CPolygon * ppoly2 = new CTriangle;

are declared being of type pointer to CPolygon but the objects dynamically allocated have been declared having the derived class type directly.