creating a derived class object with existing base class object?

Question

Is there a possibility of (or fast workaround for) creating an object defined as derived a class without creating base class object in memory; instead the derived object should refer to the actually existing object of base class ("take-over" its memory residence)? This is needed for speed reasons - creating new a derived object, copying data from base class object to it, and then destroying base object takes too much time.

Answer 1

You might want to consider composition instead of inheritance in this case - it would be more natural.