Re: switch statement to detect handling of ALL derived classes
"Stuart Golodetz" <sgolodetz@NdOiSaPlA.pMiPpLeExA.ScEom> wrote in message
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Hicham Mouline wrote:
"Ian Collins" <ian-news@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Hicham Mouline wrote:
"Ian Collins" <ian-news@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:7dnoc8F2aibr6U4@mid.individual.net...
Hicham Mouline wrote:
Imagine we have an abstract base class ABC and derived classes D1,
D2, ... Dn
I am being told a code pattern to "enforce" all cases are handled is
such:
enum ABCTypes { D1Tag, D2Tag, .... DnTag };
const ABC& base
ABCTypes t = base.getTag();
swich(t)
{
case D1Tag:
...
case DnTag:
}
without the default branch.
If you add a Dnplus1 derived class and its tag Dnplus1Tag in the enum
ABCTypes ,
all code patterns with the switch-case will generate an error if you
forget to handle the Dnplus1 case.
Eh?
1) Does the standard "require" handling all cases of the enum? Or
does it only say a conforming implementation should print a warning?
Neither.
g++ prints a warning when not all enum values are handled in the switch
case.
That is a choice made but that implementation then.
2) Are there opinions on this style? I don't like the use of the
getTag() method in the ABC class to facilitate this style.
It's horrible, why not just use virtual functions?
I also don't like it.... But I need to show an alternative.
Why?
The processing done in the switch case is not inherently related to the
ABC.
I'd rather not put that processing in a member virtual function of ABC,
but rather some external function that takes ABC
In that function, I could use
if (dynamic_cast<D1*>( base ))
///
if (dynamic_cast<D2*>( base ))
///
....
if (dynamic_cast<Dn*>( base ))
///
but with this, I can't even get a warning if I am missing Dnplus.
That's even worse.
Is there a different way of using the virtuality without writing member
virtual functions?
What's wrong with
struct ABC {
virtual void doSomething() = 0;
};
struct D1 : ABC {
void doSomething() { // does something }
};
...
base.doSomething();
All derived classes must provide doSomething(), so no case can be left
out by mistake.
--
Ian Collins
Because doSomething is not immediately relevant to ABC.
It's 3rd party code using my hierarchy that I provide for them.
Are you in search of something like the visitor pattern by any chance?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visitor_pattern
Stu
That's what it looks like. It is non intrusive.
Thanks
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