MFC Programmer's SourceBook : Thinking in C++
Bruce Eckel's Thinking in C++, 2nd Ed Contents | Prev | Next

24: Run-time type identification

Run-time type identification (RTTI) lets you find the exact type of an object when you have only a pointer or reference to the base type.

This can be thought of as a “secondary” feature in C++, a pragmatism to help out when you get into messy situations. Normally, you’ll want to intentionally ignore the exact type of an object and let the virtual function mechanism implement the correct behavior for that type. But occasionally it’s useful to know the exact type of an object for which you only have a base pointer. Often this information allows you to perform a special-case operation more efficiently or prevent a base-class interface from becoming ungainly. It happens enough that most class libraries contain virtual functions to produce run-time type information. When exception handling was added to C++, it required the exact type information about objects. It became an easy next step to build access to that information into the language.

This chapter explains what RTTI is for and how to use it. In addition, it explains the why and how of the new C++ cast syntax, which has the same appearance as RTTI.

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