I'm extracting files from zip and rar archives into raw buffers. I created the following to wrap minizip and unrarlib:

Archive.hpp

#include "ArchiveBase.hpp"
#include "ArchiveDerived.hpp"
class Archive {
  public:
    Archive(string path) {
      /* logic here to determine type */
      switch(type) {
        case RAR:
          archive_ = new ArchiveRar(path);
          break;
        case ZIP:
          archive_ = new ArchiveZip(path);
          break;
        case UNKNOWN_ARCHIVE:
          throw;
          break;
      }
    }
    Archive(Archive& other) {
      archive_ = // how do I copy an abstract class?
    }
    ~Archive() { delete archive_; }
    void passThrough(ArchiveBase::Data& data) { archive_->passThrough(data); }
    Archive& operator = (Archive& other) {
      if (this == &other) return *this;
      ArchiveBase* newArchive = // can't instantiate....
      delete archive_;
      archive_ = newArchive;
      return *this;
    }
  private:
    ArchiveBase* archive_;
}

ArchiveBase.hpp

class ArchiveBase {
  public:
    // Is there any way to put this struct in Archive instead,
    //  so that outside classes instantiating one could use
    //  Archive::Data instead of ArchiveBase::Data?
    struct Data {
      int field;
    };
    virtual void passThrough(Data& data) = 0;
    /* more methods */
}

ArchiveDerived.hpp "Derived" being "Zip" or "Rar"

#include "ArchiveBase.hpp"
class ArchiveDerived : public ArchiveBase {
  public:
    ArchiveDerived(string path);
    void passThrough(ArchiveBase::Data& data);
  private:
    /* fields needed by minizip/unrarlib */
    // example zip:
    unzFile zipFile_;
    // example rar:
    RARHANDLE rarFile_;
}

ArchiveDerived.cpp

#include "ArchiveDerived.hpp"
ArchiveDerived::ArchiveDerived(string path) { //implement }
ArchiveDerived::passThrough(ArchiveBase::Data& data) { //implement }

Somebody had suggested I use this design so that I could do:

Archive archiveFile(pathToZipOrRar);
archiveFile.passThrough(extractParams); // yay polymorphism!

• How do I write a cctor for Archive?

• What about op= for Archive?

• What can I do about "renaming" ArchiveBase::Data to Archive::Data? (Both minizip and unrarlib use such structs for input and output. Data is generic for Zip & Rar and later is used to create the respective library's struct.)