Contents Advanced Inheritance

Abstract Base Class (ABC) What can you do with an ABC? Pure virtual function Multiple inheritance Virtual Base Class Example Private inheritance Restoring the accessibility of privately inherited interface Inherit from a template class

C++ Object Oriented Programming Pei-yih Ting NTOU CS

Abstract Class
In the University database program, Person class exists only to serve as a common base class We can strengthen the abstraction by allowing only derived objects of Person to be created (instantiated). Ex.
class Person { public: Person(); Person(char *name, int age); virtual ~Person(); virtual void display() const = 0; private: char *m_name; int *m_age; };

What can you do with an Abstract Class?

You can define a pointer to the abstract class object as long as you do not try to allocate an actual object (i.e. instantiation), e.g.
Person *ptrTeacher; // polymorphic pointer

At least one member function should be declared in such way for Person to be an abstract class

Each of the derived class that need to be instantiated must implement its version of the display() virtual function. Otherwise, the derived class is still an abstract class and can not be instantiated. If Undergraduate, Graduate, and Faculty all implement the display(), function, then you can do this
Person *database[3]; // heterogeneous container database[0] = new Undergraduate("Mary", 18); database[1] = new Graduate("Angela", 25, 6000, "Fairview 2250"); database[2] = new Faculty("Sue", 34, "Fairview 2248", "Professor"); for (int i=0; i<3; i++) database[i]->display();

Person is now an example of an abstract class. Any attempt to define a Person object will fail, i.e.
Person teacher; // compilation error error C2259: 'Person' : cannot instantiate abstract class due to following members: warning C4259: 'void __thiscall Person::display(void) const' :pure virtual function was not defined

Abstract classes are sometimes called partial classes

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Pure Virtual Function

The function that makes the class abstract is called a pure virtual function (also called a deferred function) The base class can define a version for this pure virtual function to be automatically shared by all derived classes. Since each derived class has to define its own implementation for this pure virtual function, the function defined will be overridden in all derived classes. However, this function can be called explicitly as follows:
void Person::display() const { cout << getName() << " is " << getAge() << " years old.\n"; } void Faculty::display() const { Person::display(); cout << " Her address is " << m_office.getAddress() << ".\n"; cout << " Her rank is " << m_rank << ".\n\n"; }

Abstract Base Class (ABC)

ABCs are base classes that contain some pure virtual functions without being implemented Ex. In the class hierarchy below, classes A and B are all abstract because function Z is not implemented till classes C and D
class A deferred function Z()=0

class B other functions

class C Z() implemented

class D Z() implemented

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Why do you need Abstract Classes?

There could be many roles a particular type of object is playing depending on which environment the object is in. For example,
A person is an employee in his office, a father in his family, a pitcher in a baseball game, etc A pipe could be an output unit for one program and an input unit for another. A printer could be an output device for a program and a resource to be handled by the operating system

Why do you need Abstract Classes?

Two examples (types) of usage: Student Undergraduate Graduate need not be instantiated

ForeignStudent

With abstract classes, you can describe multiple interfaces when viewing/using the object in different environments. An interface specifies a particular role (we specify a role with a set of operations) for an object that provides some particular functions to other objects. An ABC is frequently an adjective, Ex. Printable, Persistent, only specify some properties. A class can have many unrelated abstract specifications. We will discuss this language feature in C++ as multiple inheritance. 7

Runnable only describe some partial property

Printable

Observable

WorkThread
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Multiple Inheritance
Sometimes an object has IS-A relationships to more than one class. In such cases, multiple inheritance may be appropriate. Consider the following two base classes
class Predator { public: Predator(char *prey, char *habitat); ~Predator(); const char *getPrey() const; const char *getHabitat() const; private: char *m_prey; char *m_habitat; };

Multiple Inheritance (contd)

Now we want to define a Cat class
class Cat: public Predator, public Pet { public: Cat(char *name, char *prey, char *habitat); void reduceLives(); int getLives() const; Predator private: int m_lives; };

Pet

class Pet { public: Pet(char *name, char *habitat); ~Pet(); const char *getName() const; const char *getHabitat() const; private: char *m_name; char *m_habitat; };
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Class inheritance hierarchy The Cat constructor

Cat

Cat::Cat(char *name, char *prey, char *habitat) : Predator(prey, habitat), Pet(name, habitat), m_lives(9) { }

Note that getHabitat() and the m_habitat will be inherited twice

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Using the Multiple Inherited classes

Using the Cat class
Cat cat("Binky", "mice", "indoors"); cat.reduceLives(); // due to an accident cout << cat.getName() << " is a cat who eats " << cat.getPrey() << " and lives " << cat.Pet::getHabitat() << ".\n" << cat.getName() << " currently has " << cat.getLives() << " lives.\n"; Output Binky is a cat who eats mice and lives indoors. Binky currently has 8 lives

Improving Multiple Inheritance

The redundancy in the base classes is a clue that perhaps we havent decomposed the inheritance properly Here is one solution: Animal getHabitat()

What would happen if we wrote this?

cout << cat.getHabitat(); error C2385: 'Cat::getHabitat' is ambiguous

The base class declaration

class Animal { public: Animal(char *habitat); virtual ~Animal(); const char *getHabitat() const; private: char *m_habitat; };

Predator getPrey()

Pet getName()

It is necessary to disambiguate which getHabitat() function we want. In this case, either Predator::getHabitat() or Pet::getHabitat() is a possible candidate.
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Cat

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Virtual Base Class

Cat inherits getHabitat() through Predator but also through Pet Animal

Syntax of Virtual Base Class

Animal is declared as before, but Predator and Pet must be marked virtual class Predator: public virtual Animal { Pet
}; class Pet: public virtual Animal { }; If not supplied, call to default ctor will be added

Predator Cat still has two getHabitat()s

cout << cat.getHabitat(); error C2385: 'Cat::getHabitat' is ambiguous

Cat

Still need to disambiguate these two versions

cout << cat.Perdator::getHabitat() << "\n"; cout << cat.Pet::getHabitat() << "\n";

Cat remains almost the same One critical difference: a virtual base class must be initialized by its most derived class (Cat in this case)
Cat::Cat(char *name, char *prey, char *habitat) : Animal(habitat), Predator(prey, habitat), Pet(name, habitat), m_lives(9) { } Predator::Predator(char *prey, char *habitat) : Animal(habitat) { m_prey = new char[strlen(prey)+1]; used only in m_habitat = new char[strlen(habitat)+1]; Predator predator("a", "b"); }
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A better solution is to create a virtual base class. A virtual base class is included only once in all derived classes. In the case of Cat, all paths from Animal to Cat must be marked as virtual, but only once.

Any initialization from intermediate class is ignored.

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Mix-in Inheritance
Multiple inheritance is sometimes used to combine disparate classes into a single abstraction. This is called mix-in inheritance. Many class libraries combine classes so that all derived classes have access to key functionality. Ex. Persistent Printable

Private Inheritance
Private inheritance
class Student { public: Student(); void setData(char *name, int age); int getAge() const; const char *getName() const; private: char *m_name; int *m_age; }; class Graduate: private Student { public: Graduate(char *name, int age, int stipend); int display() const; private: int m_stipend; };

Base class

The IS-A relationship is true only partially. The mix-in concept is easily abused, ex.
Person Undergraduate Graduate Faculty
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Office

A graduate student is not an office definitely.

All public members of Student are private to Graduate. Classes derived from Graduate would be unable to access any elements or services from Student. Private inheritance is equivalent to a HAS-A relationship. Outside client code cannot see any trace of the base class from a derived class object.
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Restoring the Accessibility

In private inheritance, individual functions can be restored to the original access (and only to that level).
class Student { public: Student(); void setData(char *name, int age); int getAge() const; const char *getName() const; private: char *m_name; int *m_age; };

Inherit from a Template Class

Assume you have a templated array class
template <class type> class Array { public: Array(int arraySize); ~Array(); void insertElement(int slot, type element); type getElement(int slot) const; int getSize() const; private: int m_arraySize; type *m_array; };

class Graduate: private Student { public: Graduate(char *name, int age, int stipend); int display() const; private: int m_stipend; };

Student::getName;

You want the class to also return the largest element in the array
template <class type> class NewArray: public Array<type> { public: NewArray(int arraySize); type getLargest(); };

Usage
Graduate graduateStudent("Angela", 25, 6000); cout << graduateStudent.getName();
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This derived NewArray class is still a template class.

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Inherit from a Template Class

Constructor
template<class type> NewArray<type>::NewArray(int arraySize): Array<type>(arraySize) { for (int i=0; i<arraySize; i++) insertElement(i, 0); }

The new function

template<class type> type NewArray<type>::getLargest() { type largest = getElement(0); for (int i=1; i<getSize(); i++) if (getElement(i) > largest) largest = getElement(i); return largest; }

Usage
void main() { NewArray<double> array(20); array.insertElement(0, 4.6); array.insertElement(5, 12.6); cout << array.getLargest(); } Output 12.6
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