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Old 05-09-2004, 06:02 PM   #5 (permalink)
KnifeMissile
 
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Location: Waterloo, Ontario
Pragma, that is a terrible attitude to have. You remind me of the story of the college instructor who was teaching his class how to write a linked list. When one of his students kindly remarked that his implementation leaked memory, he quickly stammered "Oh--well, no one worries about memory leaks, anymore..."

Of course, this is a total lie. People do worry about memory leaks, even in an age of cheap memory.

A similar lesson lies here. If each class has a constant table, there's no reason not to make it static...

So, to that end, try something like this:
Code:
class dog&#10{&#10private:  // it does no harm to explicitly declare access privilege...&#10&#10	/*&#10	I don't know how well you know C++ but there are a few things to note.&#10&#10	First, the const keyword modifies the thing to its _left_&#10	It's only a hack that, if there's nothing to its left, it modifies what's to its right.&#10&#10	Second, private member functions can be _defined_ by child classes, they&#10	just can't be _called_ by child classes.  See the distinction?&#10&#10	Thirdly, the "= 0" modifyier, if you've never seen it before, means&#10	that the function has no definition.  That means you can't actually make&#10	an instance of dog.  You must make instances which define the "= 0" member&#10	function--typically the children...&#10&#10	I hope this all makes sense to you!    */&#10	int const * get_array_data() = 0;&#10&#10public:&#10	void print_data();&#10};&#10&#10&#10class collie : public dog&#10{&#10private:&#10	static int const array[];  // there's no reason to make this public!&#10&#10	int const * get_array_data()&#10	{&#10		return array;&#10	}&#10};&#10&#10// keep your variables near the clases you define them in!&#10int const collie::array[2]={333,444};&#10&#10&#10class spaniel : public dog&#10{&#10private:&#10	static int const array[];  // there's no reason to make this public!&#10&#10	int const * get_array_data()&#10	{&#10		return array;&#10	}&#10};&#10&#10int const spaniel::array[2]={111,222};&#10&#10&#10void dog::print_data()&#10{&#10	int const * array = get_array_data();&#10	cout << array[0] << "\n";&#10	cout << array[1] << "\n";&#10}&#10&#10
On the surface, it looks like code is still duplicated, because a very similar get_array_data() must be implemented in each child class. However, this really isn't the case. Each get_array_data() function honestly does something different. They return a very specific table, depending on the class, so its "re-implementation" cannot be avoided. However, you can guarantee it will never be any more complicated than what you see. You are still reusing the print_data() function from the parent class, which may be very simple or very complicated, so all is well.

I'm tempted to say, from your question, cliche, that you have a good intuition for writing maintainable code. Then again, you admitted you're not a beginner programmer so, perhaps, that's why...


Oh--and, please, be careful with your smileys!




...edited for clarity and correctness...

Last edited by KnifeMissile; 05-13-2004 at 08:58 PM..
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