virtual methods inheritance class

Question

I have got:

class A
{
   virtual void get();
}

class B: public A
{
   void get();
}

class C: public B
{
   void get();
}

and

int main()
{
   B     *i;

   i = new C();
   i.get();
   return (0);
}

if A::get() is virtual:

i.get() calls C::get()

if A::get() is not virtual:

i.get() calls B::get()

My question is:

Why do I not need to put virtual on B::get() to use C::get() with B.get()?

Answer 1

Methods that override virtual methods from the base class will be implicitly virtual, too - that holds for the entire ihneritance chain.

struct A {
    virtual int f(int);
};

struct B : A {
    int f(int); // overrides A::f, implicitly virtual
    void g(float);
};

struct C : B {
    int f(int); // overrides B::f, implicitly virtual
    int f(char);  // doesn't override anything, not virtual
    void g(float); // doesn't override and isn't virtual,
                   // because B::g is not virtual either.
                   // It hides B::g instead.
};

Answer 2

When a member function is declared virtual in a base class, it will be virtual for all child classes as well. The fact that you can omit the virtual keyword in the child classes does not imply it is not virtual.

Your assumption on the code you proposed, that follows:

int main()
{
   B* i;
   i = new C();
   i.get();
   return (0);
}

are misguided by the fact that the above code won't even compile (even if you added the semicolons at the end of each class declaration/definition).

When you are dealing with pointers and you want to call a member function you can either dereference the pointer and use the . operator:

(*ptr).function();

or use the -> operator:

ptr->function();

Your code does neither of them. But assuming what you actually meant was:

int main()
{
   B* i = new C();
   i->get();
}

you assumptions turns out to be right:

• if A::get is virtual, in i->get, C::get will be called
• otherwise B::get will be called.

Why do I not need to put virtual on B::get() to use C::get() with B.get()?

You don't. The void get() member function is virtual from the base class, all the way to the C class. You don't need to repeat the virtual keywords, but I'd actually recommend it.