Base class pointers in C++ - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Base Class Pointers in C++

📖 Scenario: Imagine you are creating a simple program to manage different types of animals. Each animal can make a sound, but the sound depends on the specific animal type.

🎯 Goal: You will create a base class called Animal and two derived classes called Dog and Cat. Then, you will use a base class pointer to call the correct sound function for each animal.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a base class Animal with a virtual function makeSound().

Create derived classes Dog and Cat that override makeSound().

Create a base class pointer to point to objects of Dog and Cat.

Use the base class pointer to call the makeSound() function and display the correct sound.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Base class pointers are used in programs to handle different types of objects in a uniform way, like managing different animals or shapes.

💼 Career

Understanding base class pointers and virtual functions is essential for object-oriented programming, which is widely used in software development jobs.

1

Create the base class Animal

Create a base class called Animal with a public virtual function makeSound() that prints "Some generic animal sound".

C++

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use class Animal and define virtual void makeSound() inside it. Use cout to print the sound.

2

Create derived classes Dog and Cat

Create two classes Dog and Cat that inherit from Animal. Override the makeSound() function in Dog to print "Woof!" and in Cat to print "Meow!".

C++

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use class Dog : public Animal and class Cat : public Animal. Override makeSound() in both classes.

3

Create base class pointers to Dog and Cat objects

Create two pointers of type Animal* called animal1 and animal2. Point animal1 to a new Dog object and animal2 to a new Cat object.

C++

// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use Animal* animal1 = new Dog(); and Animal* animal2 = new Cat(); to create pointers.

4

Use base class pointers to call makeSound()

Use the pointers animal1 and animal2 to call the makeSound() function. Then, delete the objects to free memory.

C++

    // Your code here

Need a hint?

Call animal1->makeSound(); and animal2->makeSound();. Then use delete to free memory.