Question

the title probably is misleading, but i didn’t really know how to name it.

let’s say I have the following structs

template <typename T>
struct SillyBase{
   void doFunnyStuff(vector<T> vec){
        dummyField = T();
        for(int i=0; i<10; i++)
            vec.push_back(dummyField++);
    }
    T dummyField;
 };

struct A : public SillyBase<char>{};

struct B : public SillyBase<float>{};

now let’s further assume i have a pointer

ISillyBase* ptr;

which is pointing to an object of a DECENDANT class (A or B) of SillyBase – however, i DON’T KNOW which one (i just know it’s either A or B);

Is there ANY way for me to call doFunnyStuff() ?

maybe something like:

vector<dynamic_generic_type_of(ptr)> vec;
ptr->doFunnyStuff(vec);

thanks!

Answer 1

In your example you can’t have SillyBase* because SillyBase is defined as

template <typename T> struct SillyBase {...}

So you need to provide type …

Another problem is that you pass a copy of vector<T> into doFunnyStuff() which you then populate … that does not seems right because when the method returns you lose your vec, was it supposed to be reference vector<T>& ?