Comparing polymorphic types

I have created an abstract type (call it base), and several inherited types (child1..n). I then created an array of base classes.

I have used this array to store instances of each of the child classes. This all works fine, but I would like to be able to see which one of the child classes is stored in each element of the array. I have tried using the typeid() function, but that comes up with a warning that it can't be used with polymorphic types!

I could always just add another atribute to the base class that says which one of the child classes it was using, but I am reluctant to do this, purley becasue it seems like a bit of a cop-out! I have also tried messing around with pointers (array of pointers to base class) without any luck! Any ideas?

You could use something called RTTI - Run Time Type Identification. Use the dynamic_cast operator to get it work.

Code:

---

subclass *p = dynamic_cast <subclass *> (baseclass);
if (p)
  some code here..... //its a pointer to subclass
else
  some code here ....//not a pointer to subclass

---

They say that using RTTI is often a sign of bad "codning" (sorry) and insteed of RTTI consider using virtual functions and multiple inheritance insteed.

If the bytecount of each structure of the subclasses is different you may be able to use the sizeof() operator. Not very classy, but it may work:

if(subClassArr[x] == sizeof(someSubclass) )
....etc