Virtual function && function overriding && overload

今天想了半天Virtual Function 和 Function overriding 的区别

后来发现Virtual Function 的好处是，

This is the classic question of how polymorphism works I think. The main idea is that you want to abstract the specific type for each object. In other words: You want to be able to call the Child instances without knowing it's a child!

Here is an example: Assuming you have class "Child" and class "Child2" and "Child3" you want to be able to refer to them through their base class (Parent).

实验代码如下:

class SomeClass {
public:
    virtual void virtualf() {
        cout<<"parent";
    }
};
class derivedcalss :public SomeClass {
public:
    void virtualf() {
        cout<<"children"<<endl;
    }
};

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    SomeClass a;
    derivedcalss b;
    SomeClass* p;
    p = &b;
    p->virtualf();
    return 0;
}

再看输出，

children

这就是virtual 的好处，如果不加virtual的话，输出的会是“Parent”。 

对于一个父类的所有继承类来说，他们的一切实例的方法，均可以用parent* p-> virtualf(); 的方法来调用，即使你不知道他是一个子类。

最后，virtual （虚函数），overriding（函数覆盖），overloading（函数重载），三个完全不同的概念，有的时候一急就容易混。。