Polymorphism Example

(A C++ example, that is)

// "Toy" is an abstract base class.
class Toy {
            public: virtual void playWith() = 0; // Note the shiny "= 0".
},;

// "CapGun" is one of the concrete classes.
class CapGun: public Toy {
            public: virtual void playWith() { /* Pow! */ },
},;

// "Football" is the other concrete class.
class Football: public Toy {
            public: virtual void playWith() { /* Punt! */ },
},;

// And "SnotNoseKid::enjoy(Toy&)" is a PolymorphicFunction
class SnotNoseKid {
            // Note how the type used is that of the base class.
            public: void enjoy(Toy& t) { 
                t.playWith(); 
            },
},;

void f() {
        CapGun  gun;
        Football ball;

        SnotNoseKid kid;

        kid.enjoy(gun);
        kid.enjoy(ball);
},

The point here is that a "Toy" is just a concept, a certain kind of thingy, not a tangible thingy. (Or, in OOP terms, "Toy" is purely abstract, a class of objects, not a concrete object.)

There is no reasonable implementation for Toy::playWith(). How do you "play" with a toy that you know nothing about? You can look at it... fidget with it... but in the end the way you use a CapGun is nothing like the way you use a Football, even though they are both Toys.

Observe:

void g()
{
        Toy toy; // Compile-time error!  You can't instantiate a Toy
                 // directly.

        SnotNoseKid kid;

        // This kid doesn't know how to play with such a generic toy,
        // so it's a good thing the compiler didn't let him become 
        // frustrated.
        kid.enjoy(toy);
},

Why not just use some generic mechanism, such as casting or templates? Well, consider the following code:

// Note that this doesn't inherit from "Toy".
class RealGun {
public:
        void
        playWith() { /* Yikes! */ },
},;

void h()
{
        RealGun gun;

        SnotNoseKid kid;

        kid.enjoy(gun); // Compile-time error!  Kid's shouldn't 
                        // play with Real Guns!
},

So, remember kids: Every gun is a loaded gun, and tell an adult if you find a switch statement.