C++: How do I prevent modification of a derived object through a pointer to its base subobject?

Question

The following simplified (yet compileable) example illustrates a possible slice-assignment scenario.

#include <string>

struct Base
{
    // Mutating method. Not a chance of making it virtual.
    template <typename Anything>
    Base& operator=(const Anything& x)
    {
        m_int = x.AsInteger();
        return *this;
    }

    int AsInteger() const
    {
        return m_int;
    }

    int  m_int;
};

struct Derived : public Base
{
    template <typename Anything>
    Derived& operator=(const Anything& x)
    {
        m_text = x.AsString();
        Base::operator=(x);
        return *this;
    }
    const std::string& AsString() const
    {
        return m_text;
    }

    // Invariant: Derived::m_text matches Base::m_x.
    std::string   m_text;
};

void ExamineBase(const Base* b)
{
    b->AsInteger();
}

void ExamineBase(const Base& b)
{
    b.AsInteger();
}

void InitBase(Base* b)
{
    *b = Base();
}

void InitBase(Base& b)
{
    b = Base();
}


int main()
{
    Base           b;
    InitBase(b);          // <----- (1)
    InitBase(&b);         // <----- (2)

    Derived        d;
    Derived&       ref = d;
    Derived*       ptr = &d;

    ExamineBase(ref);     // <----- (3)
    ExamineBase(ptr);     // <----- (4)

    InitBase(ref);        // <----- (5)
    InitBase(ptr);        // <----- (6)

    return 0;
}

Lines (1), (2), (3) and (4) are good.

Lines (5) and (6) exhibit a problem: they change only the base subobject within a complete object, obviously breaking the coherence between Base::m_int and Derived::m_text.

I'm interested in preventing such slice-modification from happening, yet preserving the validity of lines (1), (2), (3) and (4).

So the questions are:

a) Are there any tricks that may prevent calling non-const member functions of a base class through a pointer to a derived class?

b) Are there any tricks that may block standard implicit conversion from Derived* to Base*, but still allow conversion from Derived* to const Base*?

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I am answering the question as asked, but if you are wondering how to achieve this, then odds are more than likely that something is wrong with your design.

Short answer: this cannot be done with public inheritance, full stop. The whole point of public inheritance is that a referenece or pointer to an object of Derived can be used as a reference or pointer to an object of Base, regardless of context.

So, the way to do this would be to go through private inheritance, or a member variable, and only expose the Base member through an accessor returning a const reference or pointer:

#include <string>
struct Base
{
    // Mutating method. Not a chance of making it virtual.
    template <typename Anything>
    Base& operator=(const Anything& x)
    {
        m_int = x.AsInteger();
        return *this;
    }

    int AsInteger() const
    {
        return m_int;
    }

    int  m_int;
};

struct Derived : private Base
{
    template <typename Anything>
    Derived& operator=(const Anything& x)
    {
        m_text = x.AsString();
        Base::operator=(x);
        return *this;
    }
    const std::string& AsString() const
    {
        return m_text;
    }

    const Base& base() const {return *this;}

    // Invariant: Derived::m_text matches Base::m_x.
    std::string   m_text;
};

void ExamineBase(const Base* b)
{
    b->AsInteger();
}

void ExamineBase(const Base& b)
{
    b.AsInteger();
}

void InitBase(Base* b)
{
    *b = Base();
}

void InitBase(Base& b)
{
    b = Base();
}


int main()
{
    Base           b;
    InitBase(b);          // <----- (1)
    InitBase(&b);         // <----- (2)

    Derived        d;
    Derived&       ref = d;
    Derived*       ptr = &d;

    ExamineBase(ref.base());     // <----- (3)
    ExamineBase(&ptr->base());     // <----- (4)

    InitBase(ref.base());        // <----- BOOM!
    InitBase(&ptr->base());        // <----- BOOM!

    return 0;
}