Re: pure operator=

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sun, 13 Jan 2008 03:57:45 +0100
Message-ID:
<13oivhcsrduc19e@corp.supernews.com>
* Mike -- Email Ignored:

Pure operator= thus:

class A // abstract
{
   virtual A& operator=(const A&); // has a purpose
};

class B : public A // never instantiated alone
{
   virtual B& operator=(const B&) = 0; // nothing needed, so pure
};

class C : public B; // instantiated


Extranous semicolon.

{
   virtual C& operator=(const C&); // has a purpose
};

Won't compile as long as I leave the assignment operator for
class B pure. Why not?


You haven't defined any of the three different assignment operators you
have declared.

Also, they're all private.

But apart from the extranous semicolon noted above, I can't see why the
code shown above shouldn't compile if you supply a main(); it's just
declarations.

 Chapter & verse?


That's not what you need.

What you need is to know that virtual assignment operators are generally
a very bad idea -- for they imply run-time type checking.

Cheers, & hth.,

- Alf

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