Re: Newbie inheritance question

From:
Kai-Uwe Bux <jkherciueh@gmx.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:38:54 +0200
Message-ID:
<f7oi5j$7n8$1@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
 keith@bytebrothers.co.uk wrote:

Hi all, I'm getting confused again, so someone please take pity and
explain. I've got something like this:

class Base
{
   void do_work(string&, string&, int&);
};

class Derived : public Base
{
   void do_work(char*, char*, int&);
};

int main()
{
   Derived MyObj;
   string sString, bString;

   MyObj.do_work(aString, bString, 123);
}

This gives a compile-time error that basically says

no matching function for call to `Derived::do_work(string&, string&,
int)'
candidates are: void Derived::do_work(char*, char*, int&)


Correct.

Why does the compiler not use the matching function from the Base
class?


Uhm, there is no matching function in the base class. Try to compile this:

#include <string>

using std::string;

class Base
{
   void do_work(string&, string&, int&);
};

int main()
{
   Base MyObj;
   string aString, bString;

   MyObj.do_work(aString, bString, 123);
}

You will find that the error is still there. The problem is the parameter
123, which will not be used to bind to an int& parameter.

I can work around it by doing something like this:

int main()
{
   Base* ptr = new Derived();
   string aString, bString;

   ptr->do_work(aString, bString, 123);
   delete ptr;
}


Apparently, you did not try this code. You would have found that the
compiler still complains. Please post the actual code that gives you
problems.

Best

Kai-Uwe Bux

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