Thread: Dynamic Casting Question

Hi All

I have a question on dyanamic casting.

Below is the code:

Code:

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

class base
{
public:

	virtual int get()
	{
		cout<<"Inside base";
		return 1;
	}

};


class derived : public base
{
public:

	int get()
	{
		cout<<"Inside derived";
		return 1;
	}

};


int main()
{
	derived *b =  new base();
	b->get();
	getchar();
  return 0;
}

This code is giving compile time error that:

cannot convert from 'class base *' to 'class derived *'

I want to understand why? What I was thinking that since derived class is pointing to base class, which mean that we are going from specialized class to generalized one, so that should be legal. In other words, upcasting.

Can anybody help to understand this?

Thanks
Nickman