What am I not getting about this abstract class implementation?
- by Schnapple
PREFACE: I'm relatively inexperienced in C++ so this very well could be a Day 1 n00b question.
I'm working on something whose long term goal is to be portable across multiple operating systems. I have the following files:
Utilities.h
#include <string>
class Utilities
{
public:
Utilities() { };
virtual ~Utilities() { };
virtual std::string ParseString(std::string const& RawString) = 0;
};
UtilitiesWin.h (for the Windows class/implementation)
#include <string>
#include "Utilities.h"
class UtilitiesWin : public Utilities
{
public:
UtilitiesWin() { };
virtual ~UtilitiesWin() { };
virtual std::string ParseString(std::string const& RawString);
};
UtilitiesWin.cpp
#include <string>
#include "UtilitiesWin.h"
std::string UtilitiesWin::ParseString(std::string const& RawString)
{
// Magic happens here!
// I'll put in a line of code to make it seem valid
return "";
}
So then elsewhere in my code I have this
#include <string>
#include "Utilities.h"
void SomeProgram::SomeMethod()
{
Utilities *u = new Utilities();
StringData = u->ParseString(StringData); // StringData defined elsewhere
}
The compiler (Visual Studio 2008) is dying on the instance declaration
c:\somepath\somecode.cpp(3) : error C2259: 'Utilities' : cannot instantiate abstract class
due to following members:
'std::string Utilities::ParseString(const std::string &)' : is abstract
c:\somepath\utilities.h(9) : see declaration of 'Utilities::ParseString'
So in this case what I'm wanting to do is use the abstract class (Utilities) like an interface and have it know to go to the implemented version (UtilitiesWin).
Obviously I'm doing something wrong but I'm not sure what. It occurs to me as I'm writing this that there's probably a crucial connection between the UtilitiesWin implementation of the Utilities abstract class that I've missed, but I'm not sure where. I mean, the following works
#include <string>
#include "UtilitiesWin.h"
void SomeProgram::SomeMethod()
{
Utilities *u = new UtilitiesWin();
StringData = u->ParseString(StringData); // StringData defined elsewhere
}
but it means I'd have to conditionally go through the different versions later (i.e., UtilitiesMac(), UtilitiesLinux(), etc.)
What have I missed here?
