Lecture

Pointers and Polymorphism in C++

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Description

This lecture covers the fundamental concepts of pointers and polymorphism in C++, including encapsulation, abstraction, inheritance, and the resolution of name collisions. It delves into the use of virtual methods, constructors, destructors, and operator overloading, emphasizing the importance of abstract classes and heterogeneous collections. Through examples, the instructor illustrates the dynamic resolution of method calls based on the actual instances during program execution. The lecture also explores the challenges of managing object ownership using pointers and smart pointers, culminating in a discussion on the complexities of object ownership. Practical applications are demonstrated through a project, showcasing the practical implications of working with pointers in C++.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Theoretical computer science

Programming language theory: High-level programming languages

Related concepts (32)

Smart pointer

In computer science, a smart pointer is an abstract data type that simulates a pointer while providing added features, such as automatic memory management or bounds checking. Such features are intended to reduce bugs caused by the misuse of pointers, while retaining efficiency. Smart pointers typically keep track of the memory they point to, and may also be used to manage other resources, such as network connections and file handles.

Pointer (computer programming)

In computer science, a pointer is an object in many programming languages that stores a memory address. This can be that of another value located in computer memory, or in some cases, that of memory-mapped computer hardware. A pointer references a location in memory, and obtaining the value stored at that location is known as dereferencing the pointer. As an analogy, a page number in a book's index could be considered a pointer to the corresponding page; dereferencing such a pointer would be done by flipping to the page with the given page number and reading the text found on that page.

Ad hoc polymorphism

In programming languages, ad hoc polymorphism is a kind of polymorphism in which polymorphic functions can be applied to arguments of different types, because a polymorphic function can denote a number of distinct and potentially heterogeneous implementations depending on the type of argument(s) to which it is applied. When applied to object-oriented or procedural concepts, it is also known as function overloading or operator overloading.

Operators in C and C++

This is a list of operators in the C and C++ programming languages. All the operators (except typeof) listed exist in C++; the column "Included in C", states whether an operator is also present in C. Note that C does not support operator overloading. When not overloaded, for the operators &&, ||, and , (the comma operator), there is a sequence point after the evaluation of the first operand. C++ also contains the type conversion operators const_cast, static_cast, dynamic_cast, and reinterpret_cast.

Operator overloading

In computer programming, operator overloading, sometimes termed operator ad hoc polymorphism, is a specific case of polymorphism, where different operators have different implementations depending on their arguments. Operator overloading is generally defined by a programming language, a programmer, or both. Operator overloading is syntactic sugar, and is used because it allows programming using notation nearer to the target domain and allows user-defined types a similar level of syntactic support as types built into a language.

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