Question

I have a very basic question concerning inheritance in C++:

class A
{
public:
  void foo() { print(); }
protected:
  void print() {}
};

class B : public A
{
protected:
  void print() { std::cout << "test" << std:: endl; }
};

Now the following code

B b;
b.foo();

doesn’t print anything, so foo() obviously didn’t call the newly defined print(). Is this only solvable by using virtual methods?

Answer 1

Yes, you need to make print virtual in order for this to work. Otherwise, A::foo has no idea that descendants could provide alternative implementations of print, an happily calls A‘s version. Compiler may even inline the print inside foo at the time A‘s code is compiled, making the implementation in B completely irrelevant.