Example of polymorphism working with data structure in C++ based on php example

Question

I am learning polymorphism and I am familiar with php.

I came across this excellent example from https://stackoverflow.com/a/749738/80353. reproduced below.

How

Answer 1

Well, you can use a pointer with abstract classes using pure virtual methods like so:

class Polygon {
    public:
        virtual void setValue(int k) = 0;    // Declaring our pure virtual method.
};

class Rect : public Polygon {
    public:
        virtual void setValue(int k); = 0;   // Declaring the pure virtual method again.
};

Rect::setValue(int k) {    // You must create a setValue() method for every class, since we made a pure virtual method. This is the Polymorphic part.
    // Code in here that setValue() method executes.
    int foo = a;
    std::cout << foo << std::endl;
}

Now you can access the methods declaring object pointers.

int main() {
    Polygon* pSomePolygon = nullptr;   // Assuming using C++11.
    Rect* pRect = new Rect;    // Declare our object.

    pSomePolygon = pRect;    // Point our pointer to object 'pRect'.

    pSomePolygon->setValue(18);    // Pointer accesses pRect and uses the pure virtual method.
    delete pRect;    // Clean up!

    return 0;
}