overriding the template base method in derived class? - c++

Question

Suppose I have a base class as below:
template <typename T>
class Base {
// implementation
void do_something() { /* ... */ } ;
};
then, I create a Derived class as below, and override the do_something() method:
template <typename T>
class Derived : public Base<T> {
// implementation
void do_something() { /* ... */ } ;
};
I know virtualization does not work in class templates, and I am just hiding the implementation of the methods. but I do want to store a bunch of derived classes and base classes into a vector, (I do not want to use type erasure, or polymorphism),
my question is, given that static_cast of Derived class to base class gives me the do_something of based class, Is there any way that I can store them as base classes while each has their implementation of do_something() class ?

Answer 1

but I do want to store a bunch of derived classes and base classes into a vector, (I do not want to use type erasure, or polymorphism),
This is already just not possible in C++. In C++, a vector can only contain objects of the same static type. The only way a vector can contain different types of objects is if their static type is still the same, but they have different dynamic types, but this is type erasure/polymorphism which you said you don't want to use.
I think maybe you need to rethink your requirements, because your question in essence reads: I want to do something, but I don't want to use technique X which is explicitly defined as the only way to do that something in C++!

Answer 2

I did this and it seems to work fine:
#include <iostream>
template <typename T>
struct Base {
virtual void do_something() { std::cout << "Base::do_something()\n"; }
};
template <typename T>
struct Derived : public Base<T> {
virtual void do_something() { std::cout << "Derived::do_something()\n"; }
};
int main() {
Base<int> b;
Derived<int> d;
Base<int> *p;
p = &b;
p->do_something();
p = &d;
p->do_something();
return 0;
}
Output:
Base::do_something()
Derived::do_something()

Answer 3

A little variation of the melpomene's answer (adding a no-template base struct, BaseOfBase, for the Base<T> structs) permit the use of a common vector of base of derived classe of different T types.
A working example
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
struct BaseOfBase
{ virtual void do_something () = 0; };
template <typename T>
struct Base : public BaseOfBase
{
T val;
void do_something ()
{ std::cout << "Base::do_something() [" << val << "]\n"; };
};
template <typename T>
struct Derived : public Base<T>
{ void do_something()
{ std::cout << "Derived::do_something() [" << this->val << "]\n"; } };
int main ()
{
std::vector<BaseOfBase*> vpbb;
Base<int> bi;
Derived<int> di;
Base<std::string> bs;
Derived<std::string> ds;
bi.val = 1;
di.val = 2;
bs.val = "foo";
ds.val = "bar";
vpbb.push_back(&bi);
vpbb.push_back(&di);
vpbb.push_back(&bs);
vpbb.push_back(&ds);
for ( auto const & pbb : vpbb )
pbb->do_something();
}

Answer 4

When we say virtualization doesn't work in template classes, we don't mean that you can't do virtual functions in a template class, nor does it mean that you cannot override a member function with a specialized version of it.
#melpomene showed an example of overriding in general, and I will show here with specialization:
#include <iostream>
template <typename T>
class Base {
public:
virtual T do_something(T in) { std::cout << "Base::do_something()\n"; return in; }
};
class Derived : public Base<int> {
public:
virtual int do_something(int in) { std::cout << "Derived::do_something()\n"; return in - 1; }
};
void main()
{
Base<int> b;
Derived d;
Base<int> *p = &b;
auto r1 = p->do_something(10);
std::cout << r1 <<std::endl;
p = &d;
auto r2 = p->do_something(10);
std::cout << r2 << std::endl;
}
Which will output
Base::do_something()
10
Derived::do_something()
9
Showing that it perfectly works as expected.
What we do mean when saying that
virtualization does not work in class templates
Basically means that you can't use as a template the derived class when the base is expected.
Consider the above classes Base<T> and Derived, then if we have the following code:
#include <memory>
template <typename T>
void Test(std::unique_ptr<Base<T>> in){ std::cout << "This will not work with derived"; }
void main()
{
Base<int> b;
Derived d;
auto ptr = std::unique_ptr<Derived>(&d);
Test(ptr); // <-- Will fail to compile as an invalid argument
}
it will fail because std::unique_ptr<Derived> does not inherit from std::unique_ptr<Base<T>> although Derived itself inherits from Base<T>.