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Sometimes you would like to create an abstract class, but there is no method you could naturally declare as pure virtual (=0) in order to achieve that (in a tag interface, for example).

In such cases the destructor may be the perfect candidate: as it should always be declared virtual if inheritance is considered, it may as well be pure virtual.

But then we have a hazard on our hands - since destructor (and constructor) invocation in inheriting classes is recursive, we will end up with a pure virtual method call - with no suitable code to execute. How do we solve this issue?

Well, c++ allows even pure virtual functions to have a body, which will be called in case of need. Observe the following piece of code:

struct A {
    virtual ~A () = 0;
};

struct B : A{
    ~B () {}
};

// try to comment out the next line and recompile
A::~A () {}

int main () {
    B b;
    return 0;
}

If you tried to comment out the implementation of A’s destructor, the linker would complain about not being able to properly destruct the created B object.

This technique of giving bodies to pure virtual functions can be used in more occasions, such as:

• To make sure no pure virtual functions are being called (inside constructor when vtable isnt ready, for example) – by placing proper false asserts.
• Or for giving default implementations which you would not want the inheriting classes to get by default (but only by explicitly invoking them).

Tagged: C++

§ 2 Responses to Pure virtual destructor

• alon says:

  23/08/2009 at 00:15

  What is wrong with just the pure virtual dtr’?

  Reply
  • rmn says:

    23/08/2009 at 00:18

    If you comment out the implementation of that destructor (like the comment suggests), you will get a complaint from the linker. Why? Because when we are trying to destruct an object of class B, the constructor will have to first invoke the destructor of B and then the unfortunetly non-existing destructor of A (since destructor invocation is recursive like the construction, but in a reversed order) – and that is why we need a proper implementation of it, despite it being pure virtual.

    Reply