Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!microsoft!jimad
From: jimad@microsoft.UUCP (Jim ADCOCK)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: PolyMorphism
Message-ID: <54033@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 11 Apr 90 17:19:24 GMT
References: <CHIN.90Apr9174555@sg1.chem.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: jimad@microsoft.UUCP (Jim ADCOCK)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 13

In article <CHIN.90Apr9174555@sg1.chem.upenn.edu> chin@sg1.chem.upenn.edu (Chin Wu) writes:
>    If we use a Base pointer to construct a Derived object, will the
>Derived destructer be used when been deleted? 

Yes -- Iff you tell the compiler that you want polymorphic behavior for
the destructor functions by declaring them "virtual."

In general, in C++, whenever you want the "correct" function called
[explicetly or implicitly] through a pointer or reference of a type
of a parent class,  rather than a pointer or reference of the actual type of the
object, and when you have differing versions of the function in the
base and the derived classes --then you need to declare the functions involved
"virtual."