Consider:
struct SomethingThatsABase
{
virtual bool IsChildOne() const { return false; }
virtual bool IsChildTwo() const { return false; }
};
struct ChildOne : public SomethingThatsABase
{
virtual bool IsChildOne() const { return true; }
};
struct ChildTwo : public SomethingThatsABase
{
virtual bool IsChildTwo() const { return true; }
};
void SomeClientExpectingAChildOne(std::shared_ptr<ChildOne> const& ptrOne)
{
//Does stuff
}
void SomeClient(std::shared_ptr<SomethingThatsABase> const& ptr)
{
if (ptr->IsChildOne())
{
SomeClientExpectingAChildOne(ptr); //Oops.
//Hmm.. can't static_cast here, because we need a `shared_ptr` out of it.
}
}
(Note that I can't simply do a std::shared_ptr<ChildOne>(static_cast<ChildOne*>(ptr.get()))
, because then the reference counts don't get shared between the two shared_ptr
s)
This ought to work:
if (ptr->IsChildOne())
{
SomeClientExpectingAChildOne(std::static_pointer_cast<ChildOne>(ptr));
}