Is it ok to dynamic cast "this" as a return value?
- by Panayiotis Karabassis
This is more of a design question.
I have a template class, and I want to add extra methods to it depending on the template type. To practice the DRY principle, I have come up with this pattern (definitions intentionally omitted):
template <class T>
class BaseVector: public boost::array<T, 3>
{
protected:
BaseVector<T>(const T x, const T y, const T z);
public:
bool operator == (const Vector<T> &other) const;
Vector<T> operator + (const Vector<T> &other) const;
Vector<T> operator - (const Vector<T> &other) const;
Vector<T> &operator += (const Vector<T> &other)
{
(*this)[0] += other[0];
(*this)[1] += other[1];
(*this)[2] += other[2];
return *dynamic_cast<Vector<T> * const>(this);
}
}
template <class T>
class Vector : public BaseVector<T>
{
public:
Vector<T>(const T x, const T y, const T z)
: BaseVector<T>(x, y, z)
{
}
};
template <>
class Vector<double> : public BaseVector<double>
{
public:
Vector<double>(const double x, const double y, const double z);
Vector<double>(const Vector<int> &other);
double norm() const;
};
I intend BaseVector to be nothing more than an implementation detail. This works, but I am concerned about operator+=. My question is: is the dynamic cast of the this pointer a code smell? Is there a better way to achieve what I am trying to do (avoid code duplication, and unnecessary casts in the user code)? Or am I safe since, the BaseVector constructor is private?
