Creating an array in c++ of type superclass to store subclass objects dynamicaly

Question

Please consider the following code :

    #include <iostream>
    using namespace std;
    class superclass;
    class subclass;
    class subclass2;
    class superclass
    {
    public:
        unsigned int a;
        superclass **superman;

    };
    class subclass : public superclass
    {
    public:
        unsigned int b;
    };
    class subclass2 : public superclass
    {
    public:
        unsigned int b;
    };
    class runner
    {
    public:
        superclass **superman;
        runner()
        {
            *superman=new superclass[2];
            superman[0]=new subclass;
            superman[0]->a=3;
            superman[1]=new subclass2;
            superman[1]->a=4;
        }

    };
    int main() {

        runner r;
        cout<<r.superman[0]->a<<" "<<r.superman[1]->a;
        return 0;
    }

As you can see I want to create a dynamicaly alocated storage of references to a parent class each of which can then point to a child class how ever I do not know how to extract the child class out again from that array so i may access its variable b;

I have tried the following approaches but they have not worked for me and give the error "conversion from 'superclass*' to non-scalar type 'subclass' requested" and "conversion from 'superclass*' to non-scalar type 'subclass2' requested"

    subclass s1=r.superman[0];
    subclass2 s2=r.superman[1];

I am sure I am missing something small.

PS: I could not find a similar question, but if it exists, please redirect me, also i would like a solution that does not require me to use vector or any inbuilt pre-existing library class.

Answer 1

You really want smart pointer in this case and superclass doesn't need to have a pointer to itself. You can can store superclass pointer in vector which points to real derived class so the polymorphism still works:

#include <memory>
#include <vector>

struct superclass
{
public:
  superclass() : a(0) {}
  virtual ~superclass() {}  // it's important to define virtual destructor as superclass is a base class
  int getA() const { return a; }

private:
  unsigned int a;
};

class subclass : public superclass
{
public:
    unsigned int b;
};
class subclass2 : public superclass
{
public:
    unsigned int b;
};

class runner
{
public:
  std::vector<std::unique_ptr<superclass>> superman;
  runner()
  {    
      superman.emplace_back(new subclass());
      superman.emplace_back(new subclass2());
  }    
};

Then you can access it simply:

   int main() 
   {    
       runner r;
       std::cout << r.superman[0]->getA() <<" " < <r.superman[1]->getA();
       return 0;
   }

Side note: hide your data if you can, access data through set/get functions, don't declare members as public.

Answer 2

    superclass **superman;
    runner()
    {
        *superman=...

These few lines of code give undefined behaviour to the code. You cannot dereference an uninitialised pointer and expect everything to work just fine.

Answer 3

Add a virtual destructor in superclass and use dynamic_cast:

class superclass
{
public:
    unsigned int a;
    superclass **superman;
    virtual ~superclass(){}; // You must at least have one virtual method
                             // in your superclass and destructor is good choice 
                             // Otherwise, dynamic_cast wouldn't work:
                             // error: ... (source type is not polymorphic) !
};
// ...
// s1 and s2 must be pointers:
subclass  *s1=dynamic_cast<subclass* >(r.superman[0]);
subclass2 *s2=dynamic_cast<subclass2*>(r.superman[1]);
//...

Note: Be careful about casting from base class to a derived class. And don't forget to release allocated memory.