Re: Problem with function not being visible

From:
Fei Liu <feiliu@aepnetworks.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:41:16 -0400
Message-ID:
<f0lq5j$ftc$1@aioe.org>
Fei Liu wrote:

chris@foobar.com wrote:

Guys, I have the following piece of code. Could you please help me
understand why
b.ToString( ) cannot be called while b.foo( ) can? When I compile I
get (gcc, but visual studio gives the same pretty much). Thanks

$ g++ -Wall foo.cpp
foo.cpp: In function `int main(int, char**)':
foo.cpp:21: error: no matching function for call to `Bar::ToString()'
foo.cpp:14: note: candidates are: virtual std::string
Bar::ToString(std::string&) const

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

template <typename _T> class Foo {
public:
  virtual std::string ToString (std::string& pfx) const = 0;
  std::string ToString ( ) const { return(ToString(std::string( ))); }
  virtual void* _foo ( ) const = 0;
  void* foo( ) const { return (_foo( )); }
};

class Bar: public Foo<int> {
public:
  std::string ToString (std::string& pfx) const { return
(std::string("test")); }
  void* _foo ( ) const { return(NULL); }
};

int main (int argc, char **argv) {
  Bar b;
  b.foo( );
  b.ToString( );
  return (0);
}


Gratz, you have manged to demonstrate two C++ gotchas in your short
code: binding temporaries to non-const reference and name hiding. When
derived class uses same name declared in base class, the name in base
class is hidden. The example below is how you fix them:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

template <typename _T> class Foo {
public:
  virtual std::string ToString (const std::string& pfx) const = 0;
  std::string ToString ( ) const { return(ToString(std::string( ))); }
  virtual void* _foo ( ) const = 0;
  void* foo( ) const { return (_foo( )); }
  virtual ~Foo(){}
};

class Bar: public Foo<int> {
public:
  using Foo<int>::ToString;
  std::string ToString (const std::string& pfx) const { return
(std::string("test")); }
  void* _foo ( ) const { return(NULL); }
};

int main (int argc, char **argv) {
  Bar b;
  b.foo( );
  b.ToString( );
  return (0);
}


Actually there are 3 errors in your code, notice I also added
virtual ~Foo(){}. Although arguably it's not an issue in your short
example, but make it a habit to declare a virtual destructor in the base
virtual class. It'll save you a lot of headache in the future.

Fei

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