Reputation: 3598
I ran into an error yesterday and, while it's easy to get around, I wanted to make sure that I'm understanding C++ right.
I have a base class with a protected member:
class Base
{
protected:
int b;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
b+=that.b;
}
};
This compiles and works just fine. Now I extend Base
but still want to use b
:
class Derived : public Base
{
protected:
int d;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
b+=that.b;
d=0;
}
};
Note that in this case DoSomething
is still taking a reference to a Base
, not Derived
. I would expect that I can still have access to that.b
inside of Derived
, but I get a cannot access protected member
error (MSVC 8.0 - haven't tried gcc yet).
Obviously, adding a public getter on b
solved the problem, but I was wondering why I couldn't have access directly to b
. I though that when you use public inheritance the protected variables are still visible to the derived class.
Upvotes: 92
Views: 133593
Reputation: 4677
protected
members can be accessed:
this
pointerTo solve your case you can use one of last two options.
Accept Derived in Derived::DoSomething
or declare Derived
friend
to Base
:
class Derived;
class Base
{
friend class Derived;
protected:
int b;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
b+=that.b;
}
};
class Derived : public Base
{
protected:
int d;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
b+=that.b;
d=0;
}
};
You may also consider public getters in some cases.
Upvotes: 14
Reputation: 888167
A class can only access protected members of instances of this class or a derived class. It cannot access protected members of instances of a parent class or cousin class.
In your case, the Derived
class can only access the b
protected member of Derived
instances, not that of Base
instances.
Changing the constructor to take a Derived
instance will solve the problem.
Upvotes: 70
Reputation: 21
Following the hack for stl I wrote a small code which seems to solve the problem of accessing the protected members in derived class
#include <iostream>
class B
{
protected:
int a;
public:
void dosmth()
{
a = 4;
}
void print() {std::cout<<"a="<<a<<std::endl;}
};
class D: private B
{
public:
void dosmth(B &b)
{
b.*&D::a = 5;
}
};
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
B b;
D d;
b.dosmth();
b.print();
d.dosmth(b);
b.print();
return 0;
}
Prints
a=4
a=5
Upvotes: 2
Reputation: 56
You can try with static_cast< const Derived*>(pBase)->Base::protected_member ...
class Base
{
protected:
int b;
public:
...
};
class Derived : public Base
{
protected:
int d;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
b += static_cast<const Derived*>(&that)->Base::b;
d=0;
}
void DoSomething(const Base* that)
{
b += static_cast<const Derived*>(that)->Base::b;
d=0;
}
};
Upvotes: 3
Reputation: 31
class Derived : public Base
{
protected:
int d;
public:
void DoSomething()
{
b+=this->b;
d=0;
}
};
//this will work
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 27
Use this
pointer to access protected members
class Derived : public Base
{
protected:
int d;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
this->b+=that.b;
d=0;
}
};
Upvotes: -2
Reputation: 41862
As mentioned, it's just the way the language works.
Another solution is to exploit the inheritance and pass to the parent method:
class Derived : public Base
{
protected:
int d;
public:
void DoSomething(const Base& that)
{
Base::DoSomething(that);
d=0;
}
};
Upvotes: 10
Reputation: 103575
You have access to the protected members of Derived
, but not those of Base
(even if the only reason it's a protected member of Derived
is because it's inherited from Base
)
Upvotes: 4