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In object-oriented programming such as is often used in C++ and Object Pascal, a virtual function or virtual method is an inheritable and overridable function or method that is dispatched dynamically.
A virtual call requires at least an extra indexed dereference and sometimes a "fixup" addition, compared to a non-virtual call, which is simply a jump to a compiled-in pointer. Therefore, calling virtual functions is inherently slower than calling non-virtual functions.
In C#, class methods, indexers, properties and events can all be overridden. Non-virtual or static methods cannot be overridden. The overridden base method must be virtual, abstract, or override. In addition to the modifiers that are used for method overriding, C# allows the hiding of an inherited property or method.
The default form of dispatch is static. To get dynamic dispatch the programmer must declare a method as virtual. C++ compilers typically implement dynamic dispatch with a data structure called a virtual function table (vtable) that defines the name-to-implementation mapping for a given class as a set of member function pointers. This is purely ...
An interface as in C# and Java can be defined in C++ as a class containing only pure virtual functions, often known as an abstract base class or "ABC". The member functions of such an abstract base class are normally explicitly defined in the derived class, not inherited implicitly.
In C++, late binding (also called "dynamic binding") refers to what normally happens when the virtual keyword is used in a method's declaration. C++ then creates a so-called virtual table , which is a look-up table for such functions that will always be consulted when they are called.
The problem is that, while virtual functions are dispatched dynamically in C++, function overloading is done statically. The problem described above can be resolved by simulating double dispatch, for example by using a visitor pattern. Suppose the existing code is extended so that both SpaceShip and ApolloSpacecraft are given the function
Virtual class; Virtual function (also called virtual method) Virtual function pointer (also called virtual method pointer) Virtual inheritance (Object Oriented Programming) Virtual method table (also called vtable, virtual function table or virtual method table) Viscosity (programming) Void type