Without virtual tables you wouldn’t be able to make runtime polymorphism work since all references to functions would be bound at compile time. A simple example struct Base { virtual void f() { } }; struct Derived : public Base { virtual void f() { } }; void callF( Base *o ) { o->f(); } … Read more
Depends on compiler. In VC++, the vtable pointer stored at the beginning of the object allocation, before any member data. (Provided your class has at least one virtual member function.) There also may be multiple vtable pointers, if your class multiply-inherits from other classes with vtables. The vtables themselves are statically allocated somewhere in your … Read more
The “virtual function table” or “virtual method table” is a list of method pointers that each class has. It contains pointers to the virtual methods in the class. Each instance of a class has a pointer to the table, which is used when you call a virtual method from the instance. This is because a … Read more
The rationale that you included is reasonably clear: naturally, virtual functions are meant to be overridden by subclasses, so you as the designer of the base class should make it as easy as possible for people who inherit your class to provide a suitable override. However, if you use auto, figuring out the return type … Read more
Why the error & how to resolve it? You need to provide definitions for all virtual functions in class A. Only pure virtual functions are allowed to have no definitions. i.e: In class A both the methods: virtual ~A(); virtual void doWork(); should be defined(should have a body) e.g.: A.cpp void A::doWork() { } A::~A() … Read more
Depends on compiler. In VC++, the vtable pointer stored at the beginning of the object allocation, before any member data. (Provided your class has at least one virtual member function.) There also may be multiple vtable pointers, if your class multiply-inherits from other classes with vtables. The vtables themselves are statically allocated somewhere in your … Read more
One or more of your .cpp files is not being linked in, or some non-inline functions in some class are not defined. In particular, takeaway::textualGame()‘s implementation can’t be found. Note that you’ve defined a textualGame() at toplevel, but this is distinct from a takeaway::textualGame() implementation – probably you just forgot the takeaway:: there. What the … Read more
The page “Notes on Multiple Inheritance in GCC C++ Compiler v4.0.1” is offline now, and http://web.archive.org didn’t archive it. So, I have found a copy of the text at tinydrblog which is archived at the web archive. There is full text of the original Notes, published online as part of “Doctoral Programming Language Seminar: GCC … Read more
Currently there is no standard way of doing this in C++ although the information must be available somewhere. Otherwise, how could the program call the function? However, GCC provides an extension that allows us to retrieve the address of a virtual function: void (A::*mfp)() = &A::func; printf(“address: %p”, (void*)(b->*mfp)); …assuming the member function has the … Read more
V-tables (or virtual tables) are how most C++ implementations do polymorphism. For each concrete implementation of a class, there is a table of function pointers to all the virtual methods. A pointer to this table (called the virtual table) exists as a data member in all the objects. When one calls a virtual method, we … Read more