C++: Deep copying a Base class pointer

Question

I searched around and seems in order to perform this I need to change my Base class and want to know if this is the best approach. For example, I have a Base class:

class Base {}

Then a long line of derived classes:

class Derived_1:: public Base {}
class Derived_2:: public Derived_1{}
...
...
class Derived_n:: public Derived_M{}

And then I have another class:

class DeepCopy 
{ 
  Base * basePtr;

  public:
   DeepCopy(DeepCopy & dc) {}
}

Assuming the Base class and Derived_x class copy constructors are properly coded, what is the best way to write the copy constructor for DeepCopy. How can we know about the class that is in the basePtr of the object we are going to copy?

Only way I can think of is using RTTI, but using a long list of dynamic_casts seems not right. Besides it requires DeepCopy to know about the inheritance hierarchy of Base class.

The other method I saw is here. But it requires Base and Derived classes implement a clone method.

So is there a much easier, standard way of doing this?

Answer 1

You need to use the virtual copy pattern: provide a virtual function in the interface that does the copy and then implement it across the hierarchy:

struct base {
   virtual ~base() {}                // Remember to provide a virtual destructor
   virtual base* clone() const = 0;
};
struct derived : base {
   virtual derived* clone() const {
      return new derived(*this);
   }
};

Then the DeepCopy object just needs to call that function:

class DeepCopy 
{ 
  Base * basePtr;    
public:
   DeepCopy(DeepCopy const & dc)           // This should be `const`
      : basePtr( dc.basePtr->clone() )
   {}
};