class inheritance & vectors

Hey, i'm making my final text rpg before I move onto direct x and i'm making great progress. I have created an inventory class and a vetor to hold Weapon objects. Now, the question I have to ask is: If I have created multiple classes that inherit all of Weapon's data members and functions(classes would include Sword, Bow, and Staff), would I be able to fill the vector with those classes?

Ex:

Code:

vector<Weapon*> m_Weapons;

void addW(Weapon* pWeapon);
{
    m_Weapons.pushBack(pWeapon);
}

Inventory.addW(Sword)<-i have no idea how i would add in a sword object, would i have to cast?  I really don't know...

thanks.

for this kind of thing you really want either a boost.ptr_vector or a container or boost.shared_ptr's.

your code would look something like

Code:

class Weapon
{
virtual void Strike(void) = 0;
};
class Sword : public Weapon {};
class Staff : public Weapon {};
class Bow : public Weapon {};
class ThermoNuclearWarhead : public Weapon {};

boost::ptr_vector<Weapon> m_weapons;

m_weapons.push_back(new Sword);
m_weapons.push_back(new Staff);
m_weapons.push_back(new Bow);
m_weapons.push_back(new ThermoNuclearWarhead);

then you can use boost.bind to do even cooler stuff like

Code:

// call Strike() on each weapon polymorphically...
std::for_each(m_weapons.begin(), m_weapons.end(),
                      boost::bind(&Weapon::Strike, _1);

and that is the power of C++, mixing functional and OO techniques.

edit: fixed code tags

Nice, ChaosEngine. I didn't know such things could be done...

>> i have no idea how i would add in a sword object, would i have to cast? I really don't know...
No, you don't have to cast. Just past a pointer to a Sword if you want to add a Sword. The add function will work fine.

thanks alot! I'll be sure to post the game in the games forum once it's complete.