C++ cast to derived class

How can i cast to a derived class? The below approaches all give the following error:

> Cannot convert from BaseType to DerivedType. No constructor could take > the source type, or constructor overload resolution was ambiguous.

BaseType m_baseType;

DerivedType m_derivedType = m_baseType; // gives same error

DerivedType m_derivedType = (DerivedType)m_baseType; // gives same error

DerivedType * m_derivedType = (DerivedType*) & m_baseType; // gives same error

Think like this:

class Animal { /* Some virtual members */ };
class Dog: public Animal {};
class Cat: public Animal {};


Dog     dog;
Cat     cat;
Animal& AnimalRef1 = dog;  // Notice no cast required. (Dogs and cats are animals).
Animal& AnimalRef2 = cat;
Animal* AnimalPtr1 = &dog;
Animal* AnimlaPtr2 = &cat;

Cat&    catRef1 = dynamic_cast<Cat&>(AnimalRef1);  // Throws an exception  AnimalRef1 is a dog
Cat*    catPtr1 = dynamic_cast<Cat*>(AnimalPtr1);  // Returns NULL         AnimalPtr1 is a dog
Cat&    catRef2 = dynamic_cast<Cat&>(AnimalRef2);  // Works
Cat*    catPtr2 = dynamic_cast<Cat*>(AnimalPtr2);  // Works

// This on the other hand makes no sense
// An animal object is not a cat. Therefore it can not be treated like a Cat.
Animal  a;
Cat&    catRef1 = dynamic_cast<Cat&>(a);    // Throws an exception  Its not a CAT
Cat*    catPtr1 = dynamic_cast<Cat*>(&a);   // Returns NULL         Its not a CAT.

Now looking back at your first statement:

Animal   animal = cat;    // This works. But it slices the cat part out and just
                          // assigns the animal part of the object.
Cat      bigCat = animal; // Makes no sense.
                          // An animal is not a cat!!!!!
Dog      bigDog = bigCat; // A cat is not a dog !!!!

You should very rarely ever need to use dynamic cast.
This is why we have virtual methods:

void makeNoise(Animal& animal)
{
     animal.DoNoiseMake();
}

Dog    dog;
Cat    cat;
Duck   duck;
Chicken chicken;

makeNoise(dog);
makeNoise(cat);
makeNoise(duck);
makeNoise(chicken);

The only reason I can think of is if you stored your object in a base class container:

std::vector<Animal*>  barnYard;
barnYard.push_back(&dog);
barnYard.push_back(&cat);
barnYard.push_back(&duck);
barnYard.push_back(&chicken);

Dog*  dog = dynamic_cast<Dog*>(barnYard[1]); // Note: NULL as this was the cat.

But if you need to cast particular objects back to Dogs then there is a fundamental problem in your design. You should be accessing properties via the virtual methods.

barnYard[1]->DoNoiseMake();

You can't cast a base object to a derived type - it isn't of that type.

If you have a base type pointer to a derived object, then you can cast that pointer around using dynamic_cast. For instance:

DerivedType D;
BaseType B;

BaseType *B_ptr=&B
BaseType *D_ptr=&D;// get a base pointer to derived type

DerivedType *derived_ptr1=dynamic_cast<DerivedType*>(D_ptr);// works fine
DerivedType *derived_ptr2=dynamic_cast<DerivedType*>(B_ptr);// returns NULL

dynamic_cast should be what you are looking for.

EDIT:

DerivedType m_derivedType = m_baseType; // gives same error

The above appears to be trying to invoke the assignment operator, which is probably not defined on type DerivedType and accepting a type of BaseType.

DerivedType * m_derivedType = (DerivedType*) & m_baseType; // gives same error

You are on the right path here but the usage of the dynamic_cast will attempt to safely cast to the supplied type and if it fails, a NULL will be returned.

Going on memory here, try this (but note the cast will return NULL as you are casting from a base type to a derived type):

DerivedType * m_derivedType = dynamic_cast<DerivedType*>(&m_baseType);

If m_baseType was a pointer and actually pointed to a type of DerivedType, then the dynamic_cast should work.

Hope this helps!

First of all - prerequisite for downcast is that object you are casting is of the type you are casting to. Casting with dynamic_cast will check this condition in runtime (provided that casted object has some virtual functions) and throw bad_cast or return NULL pointer on failure. Compile-time casts will not check anything and will just lead tu undefined behaviour if this prerequisite does not hold.
Now analyzing your code:

DerivedType m_derivedType = m_baseType;

Here there is no casting. You are creating a new object of type DerivedType and try to initialize it with value of m_baseType variable.

Next line is not much better:

DerivedType m_derivedType = (DerivedType)m_baseType;

Here you are creating a temporary of DerivedType type initialized with m_baseType value.

The last line

DerivedType * m_derivedType = (DerivedType*) & m_baseType;

should compile provided that BaseType is a direct or indirect public base class of DerivedType. It has two flaws anyway:

1. You use deprecated C-style cast. The proper way for such casts is
   static_cast<DerivedType *>(&m_baseType)
2. The actual type of casted object is not of DerivedType (as it was defined as BaseType m_baseType; so any use of m_derivedType pointer will result in undefined behaviour.