Confusion over inheritance

Hi all,

I have experiencing a couple of problems with a project that I am doing for school. Unfortunately in trying to write a cut down version of the code so I can explaing my problem, I have come across another issue that I cannot solve.

Any ideas?

Given the following code, I get this error:

main.cpp(11): error C2243: 'type cast' : conversion from 'CFlower *' to 'CPlant *' exists, but is inaccessible

Code:

#ifndef CPLANT_H_
#define CPLANT_H_

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>

using namespace std;

class CPlant
{
private:
	char *plantName;

public:
	CPlant(char *);
	~CPlant(void);
	char* getPlantName(void);
};

#endif // CPLANT_H_

Code:

#include "CPlant.h"

CPlant::CPlant(char* name)
{
	plantName = NULL;
	plantName = new char[strlen(name) + 1];
	strcpy(plantName, name);
}

CPlant::~CPlant(void)
{
	if (plantName)
	{
		delete [] plantName;
		plantName = NULL;
	}
}
	
char * CPlant::getPlantName(void)
{
	return plantName;
}

Code:

#ifndef CFLOWER_H_
#define CFLOWER_H_

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include "CPlant.h"

using namespace std;


class CFlower : CPlant
{
private:
	char *flowerColor;

public:
	CFlower(char *, char *);
	~CFlower(void);
	char* getFlowerColor(void);
};

#endif // CFLOWER_H_

Code:

#include "CFlower.h"

CFlower::CFlower(char *name, char *color) : CPlant(name)
{
	flowerColor = NULL;
	flowerColor = new char [strlen(color) + 1];
	strcpy(flowerColor, color);
}

CFlower::~CFlower(void)
{
	if (flowerColor)
	{
		delete [] flowerColor;
		flowerColor = NULL;
	}
}

char* CFlower::getFlowerColor(void)
{
	return flowerColor;
}

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include "CPlant.h"
#include "CFlower.h"

using namespace std;

int main(void)
{
	CPlant *plant[2];

	plant[0] = new CFlower("Rose", "Red");
	plant[1] = new CFlower("Rose", "Yellow");


	return 0;
}

In C++ private inheritance is default,try public

Code:

class CFlower : public CPlant
{
private:
...

>>class CFlower : CPlant

should be class CFlower : public CPlant


Also, dont bother using char*....use std::string - i's easier and safer.

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

class CPlant
{
private:
	string plantName;
public:
	CPlant(const string&);
	~CPlant(void);
	const string& getPlantName(void) const;
};


CPlant::CPlant(const string& name): plantName(name)
{
}


CPlant::~CPlant(void)
{
}

const string& CPlant::getPlantName(void) const
{
	return plantName;
}


class CFlower : public CPlant
{
private:
	string flowerColor;
public:
	CFlower(const string&,const string&);
	~CFlower(void);
	const string& getFlowerColor(void)const;
};



CFlower::CFlower(const string& name, const string& color)
	 :CPlant(name),flowerColor(color)
{
}

CFlower::~CFlower(void)
{
}

const string& CFlower::getFlowerColor(void)const
{
	return flowerColor;
}


int main(void)
{
	CPlant *plant[2];
	plant[0] = new CFlower("Rose", "Red");
	plant[1] = new CFlower("Rose", "Yellow");
	return 0;
}

::EDIT:: Beaten to it!

Goddam it! I can't believe I missed that. Your a legend. Thanks Wledge. :)

Ok - now I can ask my real problem.. given the above code (and given that there is public inheritance with regards to CPlant) I would like to overload the << operator in the derived class CFlower.. as such

Code:

ostream& CFlower::operator<<(ostream &os)
{
	os << "The Flower Color: " << *flowerColor << endl;

	return os;
}

Then, in the main function I need to be able to loop through the array of derived objects and using the overloading << operator output the details.

Code:

    cout << *plant[0];

But I get this error message:

main.cpp(14): error C2679: binary '<<' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'CPlant' (or there is no acceptable conversion)

Any ideas?

[edit] : Thanks fordy, must have only been beaten by minutes ;)
Good point regarding the string class, will make adjustments.

I'm pretty convinced at this point that the problem is because when I am dereferencing the pointer to the subclass the compiler cannot determine the type of the class required, it is assuming that the class is of type CPlant, for which the << operator is not overloaded. I can't quite work out how to force it to treat the pointer as a pointer to a CFlower object..

To overload << for your class you need to overload a function outside of your class

ala;

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out,const foo& f);

But as it's outside your class, it cant normally access private or protected members, so you declare this function as a friend in your class declaration

Code:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

class foo
{
	string str;
public:
	foo(const string& str_):str(str_){}
	friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&,const foo&);
};

ostream& operator<<(ostream& out,const foo& f)
{
	out << f.str;
	return out;
}

int main(void)
{
	foo f("Hello World");
	cout << f << endl;
}

Try this in your class:

friend ostream &operator << (ostream &stream, CFlower flower);

Then any output stream can be given a CFlower class.

EDIT: Dang, beaten by Fordy.

Thanks all. :)

There was another problem that I have just solved. Could you let me know if you agree?

When the CFlower class was instantiated and a pointer stored in the array of CPlant (the base class type), the compiler could not determine at run time, which object was being called. Therefore even if I had the correctly overloaded operator<< method in the subclass, it would always come up with the error:

main.cpp(14): error C2679: binary '<<' : no operator found which takes a right-hand operand of type 'CPlant' (or there is no acceptable conversion)

because it couldn't find the operator<< in the base class that CFlower was derived from.

It took me some time to realise that RTTI was not enabled by default in MSVC++ 7 but when I did the dynamic cast worked. My only adjustments to the code are what is here in the main function and to ensure that dynamic binding has been enabled in the base class. [edit]: and of course the operator<< code as suggested by you two lovely people :)

Code:

	CPlant *plant[2];

	plant[0] = new CFlower("Rose", "Red");
	plant[1] = new CFlower("Rose", "Yellow");
	
	CFlower *tmp;

	tmp = dynamic_cast <CFlower *> (plant[0]);

	cout << *tmp;

	return 0;

Cheers :)