Creating a new object from dynamic type info

Question

In C++, is there any way to query the type of an object and then use that information to dynamically create a new object of the same type?

For example, say I have a simple 3 class hierarchy:

class Base
class Foo : public Base
class Bar : public Base

Now suppose I give you an object cast as type Base -- which is in reality of type Foo. Is there a way to query the type and use that info to later create new objects of type Foo?

Answer 1

In C++, is there any way to query the type of an object...

Yes, use typeid() operator

For example:

// typeid, polymorphic class
 #include <iostream>
 #include <typeinfo>
 #include <exception>
 using namespace std;

 class CBase { virtual void f(){} };
 class CDerived : public CBase {};

 int main () {
   try {
     CBase* a = new CBase;
     CBase* b = new CDerived;
      cout << "a is: " << typeid(a).name() << '\n';
     cout << "b is: " << typeid(b).name() << '\n';
     cout << "*a is: " << typeid(*a).name() << '\n';
     cout << "*b is: " << typeid(*b).name() << '\n';
    } catch (exception& e) { cout << "Exception: " << e.what() << endl; }
    return 0;
  }

Output:

a is: class CBase *
b is: class CBase *
*a is: class CBase
*b is: class CDerived

If the type typeid evaluates is a pointer preceded by the dereference operator (*), and this pointer has a null value, typeid throws a bad_typeid exception

Read more.....

Answer 2

There's only some hacky ways to do this.

The first and IMHO the ugliest is:

Base * newObjectOfSameType( Base * b )
{
  if( dynamic_cast<Foo*>( b ) ) return new Foo;
  if( dynamic_cast<Bar*>( b ) ) return new Bar;
}

Note that this will only work if you have RTTI enabled and Base contains some virtual function.

The second an neater version is to add a pure virtual clone function to the base class

struct Base { virtual Base* clone() const=0; }
struct Foo : public Base { Foo* clone() const { return new Foo(*this); }
struct Bar : public Base { Bar* clone() const { return new Bar(*this); }

Base * newObjectOfSameType( Base * b )
{
  return b->clone();
}

This is much neater.

One cool/interesting thing about this is that Foo::clone returns a Foo*, while Bar::clone returns a Bar* . You might expect this to break things, but everything works due to a feature of C++ called covariant return types.

Unfortunately covariant return types dont work for smart pointers .. so using sharted_ptrs your code would look like this.

struct Base { virtual shared_ptr<Base> clone() const=0; }
struct Foo : public Base { shared_ptr<Base> clone() const { return shared_ptr<Base>(new Foo(*this) ); }
struct Bar : public Base { shared_ptr<Base> clone() const { return shared_ptr<Base>(new Bar(*this)); }

shared_ptr<Base> newObjectOfSameType( shared_ptr<Base> b )
{
  return b->clone();
}

Answer 3

You can use e.g. typeid to query an object's dynamic type, but I don't know of a way to directly instantiate a new object from the type information.

However, apart from the clone approach mentioned above, you could use a factory:

#include <typeinfo>
#include <iostream>

class Base
{
public:
    virtual void foo() const
    {
        std::cout << "Base object instantiated." << std::endl;
    }
};


class Derived : public Base
{
public:
    virtual void foo() const
    {
        std::cout << "Derived object instantiated." << std::endl;
    }
};


class Factory
{
public:
    static Base* createFrom( const Base* x )
    {
        if ( typeid(*x) == typeid(Base) )
        {
            return new Base;
        }
        else if ( typeid(*x) == typeid(Derived) )
        {
            return new Derived;
        }
        else
        {
            return 0;
        }
    }
};


int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
    Base* X = new Derived;
    if ( X != 0 )
    {
        std::cout << "X says: " << std::endl;
        X->foo();
    }

    Base* Y = Factory::createFrom( X );
    if ( Y != 0 )
    {
        std::cout << "Y says: " << std::endl;
        Y->foo();
    }

    return 0;
}

P.S.: The essential part of this code example is of course the Factory::createFrom method. (It's probably not the most beautiful C++ code, since my C++ has gone a little rusty. The factory method probably shouldn't be static, on second thought.)

Answer 4

The commonly used way to create copies of objects by base class is adding a clone method, which is essentially a polymorphic copy constructor. This virtual function normally needs to be defined in every derived class, but you can avoid some copy&paste by using the Curiously Recurring Template Pattern:

// Base class has a pure virtual function for cloning
class Shape {
public:
    virtual ~Shape() {} // Polymorphic destructor to allow deletion via Shape*
    virtual Shape* clone() const = 0; // Polymorphic copy constructor
};
// This CRTP class implements clone() for Derived
template <typename Derived> class Shape_CRTP: public Shape {
public:
    Shape* clone() const {
        return new Derived(dynamic_cast<Derived const&>(*this));
    }
};
// Every derived class inherits from Shape_CRTP instead of Shape
// Note: clone() needs not to be defined in each
class Square: public Shape_CRTP<Square> {};
class Circle: public Shape_CRTP<Circle> {};
// Now you can clone shapes:
int main() {
    Shape* s = new Square();
    Shape* s2 = s->clone();
    delete s2;
    delete s;
}

Notice that you can use the same CRTP class for any functionality that would be the same in every derived class but that requires knowledge of the derived type. There are many other uses for this besides clone(), e.g. double dispatch.

Answer 5

class Base
{
public:
 virtual ~Base() { }
};

class Foo : public Base
{

};

class Bar : public Base
{

};

template<typename T1, typename T2>
T1* fun(T1* obj)
{
 T2* temp = new T2();
 return temp;
}

int main()
{
  Base* b = new Foo();
  fun<Base,Foo>(b);
}