Inheritance of a static object factory

[nomiz]

Well, I would like it to be QList<Object>, because I want to add stuff in Object relative to LibObject..

[wayfaerer]

But LibObject::createObject() returns a LibObject, not an Object. You can make it return an Object if you want it to.

[nomiz]

Please explain. Do I have to re-declare the createObject() method in the Object class definition?

[wayfaerer]

I don't think so.

A base class factory method can (and often does) return an instance of a derived class. You would just change LibObject::createObject to:

Object LibObject::createObject() {
    Object o;
    return o;   
}

Object LibObject::createObject() {
    Object o;
    return o;   
}

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There's an excellent example of something similar here (in the "after" section): http://sourcemaking.com/design_patte...y_method/cpp/1

[nomiz]

No way! But then, shouldn't LibObject (the base class) be aware of its subclass (Object)? I think I don't exactly understand it yet, but I'll read your reference. Thanks!

[wayfaerer]

It blew my mind too.

It should be aware of the subclass, in the sense that it needs to #include the subclass's header file (or they could be in the same header file).