C++ Inheritance and Polymorphism Competency (Intermediate Level)

Topics covered

• access base class fields from the child class
• access members of base and derived classes
• compare constructors in base classes and derived classes
• contrast is-a relationships and inheritance with has-a relationships and composition
• create pointers to derived and base class objects
• demonstrate the covariance edge case in dynamic method dispatch
• demonstrate the use of runtime polymorphism in different scenarios
• demonstrate ways of getting around name hiding
• disable overriding and inheritance using the ‘final’ keyword
• enable runtime polymorphism by marking destructors as virtual
• explore the mechanics of runtime polymorphism
• implement private inheritance
• outline the concept of abstract classes
• outline the concepts of multiple inheritance and the diamond hierarchy
• perform dynamic casts
• recall how private, public, and protected inheritance works
• recall that default input arguments should not be specified in virtual functions
• recall that the signatures of dynamically dispatched methods must be the same
• recognize errors and issues which can result with dynamic casts
• use C++-style static casts and contrast them with C-style casts
• use ‘protected’ as the base class access specifier
• use the scope resolution operator to invoke specific versions of virtual methods
• use the ‘using’ keyword and implement virtual methods in multiple inheritance
• work with copy constructors in inheritance hierarchies
• work with destructors in inheritance hierarchies