Should the Assignment Operator in C Be Virtual?

Virtual Assignment Operator in C

Why make the assignment operator virtual?

The assignment operator is not inherently required to be virtual in C . However, making it virtual can be beneficial in certain scenarios involving derived classes.

Can other operators be made virtual?

Yes, in principle, any operator that takes in the type in question can be made virtual, including arithmetic and logical operators.

Detailed Explanation

Virtual functions and parameter inheritance:

Virtual functions are intended to allow derived classes to override base class functions with the same signature. However, the virtual keyword does not consider the inheritance of parameters. Therefore, even if the assignment operator is made virtual, the call will not behave like a virtual function if the derived class's assignment operator has a different parameter type.

Default values and overloaded operators:

Instead, you can define a virtual function to set default values for derived classes when assigning to base class variables. This is possible even if the base class variable is actually storing a derived class object. By overriding the base class assignment operator, you can specify default values for the derived class properties.

Proper assignment handling with RTTI:

To handle assignment correctly in the presence of derived classes, you can utilize Runtime Type Information (RTTI). Using dynamic_cast, you can check the dynamic type of the object being assigned and handle the assignment accordingly. This ensures that the proper derived class assignment operator is invoked and all properties are correctly initialized.

The above is the detailed content of Should the Assignment Operator in C Be Virtual?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!