Base class pointer vs inherited class pointer?

Question

Suppose I have a class Dog that inherits from a class Animal. What is the difference between these two lines of code?

    Animal *a         


        

Answer 1

The difference is important when you try to call Dog's methods that are not Animal's method. In the first case (pointer to Animal) you have to cast the pointer to Dog first. Another difference is if you happen to overload non-virtual method. Then either Animal::non_virtual_method() (pointer to Animal) or Dog::non_virtual_method(pointer to Dog) will be called.