Question: Determining object scope from root object

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. This board is an invaluable resource and I thank you all throughout the year for your support.

Now, onto my question, I have defined a nested structure as follows:

Code:

typedef struct foo{
     
     typedef struct poo{
     }poo;

     typedef struct shoo{
     }shoo;

}foo;

I define a function as follows:

Code:

void placeObject(foo object);

I would like to pass a parameter such as:

Code:

foo:poo object;
placeObject(object);

Then the function placeObject determines the type of foo object passed in but this is proving more difficult than I thought.

It appears I would have to overload placeObject with each scoped inner struct such as placeObject(foo::shoo do) but not sure I have to do that. Any ideas on how placeObject can have a type foo argument and figure out the inner struct type used?

Perhaps you should consider the use of a class hierarchy instead: foo could be a polymorphic base class, then poo and shoo derive from it, overriding certain methods that are then invoked by placeObject. Under ideal circumstances, you then would not need to find out the type of the object as polymorphism would just work to call the desired method.

Interesting idea laserlight. I assume this also would work better with classes rather than structures too?

Other than rules pertaining to default access (private for classes and public for structs), classes and structs are pretty much equivalent in C++.

Also, you don't need those typedefs either way.

I thought the typedef made it easier to refer to the struct more similar to a variable:

Code:

foo variable_name;

No?

Originally Posted by Imanuel

I thought the typedef made it easier to refer to the struct more similar to a variable

In C, the typedef is used such that one can use the name alias foo instead of struct foo. In C++, foo would already be the type name.

Ahh ok, thank you. More of my old C habits ...