Behaviour of virtual functions in constructors and destructors

The behaviour of virtual functions in constructors and destructors is often confusing when first encountered.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

class base { 
public:
    base() { f("base constructor"); }
    ~base() { f("base destructor"); }

    virtual const char* v() { return "base::v()"; }

    void f(const char* caller) { 
        cout << "When called from " << caller << ", "  << v() << " gets called.\n"; 
    }        
};

class derived : public base {
public:
    derived() { f("derived constructor"); }
    ~derived() { f("derived destructor"); }

    const char* v() override { return "derived::v()"; }

};

int main() {
     derived d;
}

Output:

When called from base constructor, base::v() gets called.

When called from derived constructor, derived::v() gets called.

When called from derived destructor, derived::v() gets called.

When called from base destructor, base::v() gets called.

The reasoning behind this is that the derived class may define additional members which are not yet initialized (in the constructor case) or already destroyed (in the destructor case), and calling its member functions would be unsafe. Therefore during construction and destruction of C++ objects, the dynamic type of *this is considered to be the constructor’s or destructor’s class and not a more-derived class.

Example:

#include <iostream>
#include <memory>

using namespace std;
class base {
public:
    base()
    {
        std::cout << "foo is " << foo() << std::endl;
    }
    virtual int foo() { return 42; }
};

class derived : public base {
    unique_ptr<int> ptr_;
public:
    derived(int i) : ptr_(new int(i*i)) { }
    // The following cannot be called before derived::derived due to how C++ behaves, 
    // if it was possible... Kaboom!
    int foo() override   { return *ptr_; } 
};

int main() {
    derived d(4);
}

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