C++ Struct inheritance against class inheritance

From:
johnsonlau <laozhongcheng@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:42:31 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<20a3badb-dee4-4bcc-bdc9-28fcc0ba0560@u36g2000pro.googlegroups.com>
When a class derives from a class,
You can use a pointer to the parent class to delete the instance of
child
only when a virtual destructor declared in the parent.

class Parent
{
    virtual ~Parent(); // virtual destructor
}

class Child : public Parent
{
}

Parent * instance = new Child();
delete instance;

===============================================

But is it the same when parent is a struct?

struct StructParent {
}

class Child : public StructParent {
}

StructParent * instance = new Child();
delete instance;

Does this mean that I should decleare a virtual destructor in
StructParent
to provide correct information about the parent and a safe delete
operation?
Or I can only write codes like:
Child * instance = new Child();
delete instance;

I'm a little confused.

Can I say that,
if I ensure that I only use pointer to the Child (bug not the
Parent's) and
perform delete operation on it, plus there is no virtual method in
both Parent and Child,
I can define no virtual destructor in struct inheritance and class
inheritance.

Thank you.

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