C++ covariant templates

Question

I feel like this one has been asked before, but I'm unable to find it on SO, nor can I find anything useful on Google. Maybe "covariant" isn't the word I'm looking for, but this concept is very similar to covariant return types on functions, so I think it's probably correct. Here's what I want to do and it gives me a compiler error:

class Base;
class Derived : public Base;

SmartPtr<Derived> d = new Derived;
SmartPtr<Base> b = d; // compiler error

Assume those classes are fully fleshed out... I think you get the idea. It can't convert a SmartPtr<Derived> into a SmartPtr<Base> for some unclear reason. I recall that this is normal in C++ and many other languages, though at the moment I can't remember why.

My root question is: what is the best way to perform this assignment operation? Currently, I'm pulling the pointer out of the SmartPtr, explicitly upcasting it to the base type, then wrapping it in a new SmartPtr of the appropriate type (note that this is not leaking resources because our home-grown SmartPtr class uses intrusive reference counting). That's long and messy, especially when I then need to wrap the SmartPtr in yet another object... any shortcuts?

Answer 1

SmartPtr<Base> and SmartPtr<Derived> are two distinct instantiations of a the SmartPtr template. These new classes do not share the inheritance that Base and Derived do. Hence, your problem.

what is the best way to perform this assignment operation?

 SmartPtr<Base> b = d; 

Does not invoke assignment operator. This invokes the copy-ctor (the copy is elided in most cases) and is exactly as if you wrote:

 SmartPtr<Base> b(d); 

Provide for a copy-ctor that takes a SmartPtr<OtherType> and implement it. Same goes for the assignment operator. You will have to write out the copy-ctor and op= keeping in mind the semantics of SmartPtr.

Answer 2

Both the copy constructor and the assignment operator should be able to take a SmartPtr of a different type and attempt to copy the pointer from one to the other. If the types aren't compatible, the compiler will complain, and if they are compatible, you've solved your problem. Something like this:

template<class Type> class SmartPtr
{
    ....
    template<class OtherType> SmartPtr(const SmartPtr<OtherType> &blah) // same logic as the SmartPtr<Type> copy constructor

    template<class OtherType> SmartPtr<Type> &operator=(const SmartPtr<OtherType> &blah) // same logic as the SmartPtr<Type> assignment operator
};