Cannot instantiate abstract class

[ernesto]

Hi everybody:

I have the following implementations :

class A
{
public:
virtual int GetValue() = 0;
};

class B : public A
{
public:
B(int aValue);
virtual ~B();
virtual int GetValue();
private:
int mValue;
};

class C
{
public:
C(A aValue);

private:
A mValue;
};
My questions are: Why the compiler cannot instantiate abstract class on
my "class C" constructor implementation?

I want my class to work with instances of classes derived from A and it
does not allow to me do it.

Is there another way to do it?

Best regards,


ernesto

[Alf P. Steinbach]

* ernesto:

class A
{
public:
virtual int GetValue() = 0;
};

class B : public A
{
public:
B(int aValue);
virtual ~B();
virtual int GetValue();
private:
int mValue;
};

class C
{
public:
C(A aValue);
C( A const& value )

private:
A mValue;
Needs to be changed to e.g.

A const* mValue;

but beware of object lifetime and object destruction responsibility.
};

--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
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[Rolf Magnus]

ernesto wrote:

Hi everybody:

I have the following implementations :

class A
{
public:
virtual int GetValue() = 0;
};

class B : public A
{
public:
B(int aValue);
virtual ~B();
virtual int GetValue();
private:
int mValue;
};

class C
{
public:
C(A aValue);

private:
A mValue;
};
My questions are: Why the compiler cannot instantiate abstract class on
my "class C" constructor implementation?

I want my class to work with instances of classes derived from A and it
does not allow to me do it.

That's because C's constructor takes an A by value. That means it would copy
the object. But it can't do that, because A is abstract, and would actually
not be what you want. You need to pass by reference.

class C
{
public:
C(A& aValue);

private:
A& mValue;
};

PS: You don't seem to do const correct programming. I assume your
A::GetValue() member function doesn't change the value, which means that
this function should be 'virtual int GetValue() const = 0'. Similar for
class B.

[Bangalore]

We can create pointers as well as references to Abstract class , but
not objects.
Thanks
Bangalore