Pure virtual function issue

Question

I have a base class in which I have a pure virtual function and with this function, I want to override it in other derived classes (in some of those with a different number of parameters if possible).

So in the MergeSort subclass, I have MSort method which will need a different number of parameters as it is done recursively.

So having this function at the moment with those parameters I'm getting this error 'MergeSort:' cannot instantiate abstract class. BUT if I override the Sort method from the base class works fine, but I don't need one parameter.

I also tried to declare another virtual function with a different number of parameters and define it in MergeSort class and I get the same thing.

I'd also like to clarify that I have other subclasses for different algorithms (bubble sort, insertion sort etc) which are implemented similarly to MergeSort (a constructor and a sort function) but the sort function has the same no of parameters(just one used for a graphical interface) like in the base class from above.

So is it possible to have an overridden method with a different number of parameters? Or any other solution to what I've said above?

// BASE CLASS
// Forward declaration
class Interface;

/**
 * Base class from which the sorting algorithms classes will inherit (Polymorphic class) 
 * The base class will allow us to create a sequence with n elements    
 */
class SortingAlgorithms
{

protected:
    std::vector<sf::RectangleShape> sequence;       // vector which will contain a randomized sequence
    std::vector<sf::RectangleShape> sequenceCpy;    // a copy of sequence used for interaction features
    sf::RenderWindow& window;                       // initializes the window
    int minimum, maximum;                           // the range in which the elements will be randomized
    int elements;                                   // the number of elements which will be initialized

public:
    SortingAlgorithms();

    /** SortingAlgorithms() - class constructor which initializes the sequence
     *  @param min - the minimum value for randomizing
     *  @param max - the maximum value for randomizing
     *  @param els - the number of elements to generate
     *  @param win - since the window will be initialized only once (singleton pattern); 
     *               it will be needed to pass on this object to almost every function that has 
                     graphics features
     */
     SortingAlgorithms(int min, int max, int els, sf::RenderWindow& win);


     // A pure virtual function for overriding and param init which is what I described about win param from SortingAlgorithms constructor 
     virtual void Sort(std::unique_ptr<Interface>& init) = 0;
};



class MergeSort : public SortingAlgorithms
{
public:
    MergeSort(int min, int max, int els, sf::RenderWindow& win);
    
    void Merge(std::unique_ptr<Interface>& init, int first, int mid, int last);
    void MSort(std::unique_ptr<Interface>& init, int first, int last);
};

Answer 1

As stated in the comments, you have to use the same signature for all your overrides. In doing so, you could use the following approach: use overridden function as a sort of entrypoint, inside which you call a real function (maybe private) that performs sorting. An example to illustrate the approach:

class SortingAlgo
{
public:
    virtual void sort(int arr[], int n) = 0;
};

class BubbleSort: public SortingAlgo
{
public:
    void sort(int arr[], int n){
        this->bubble_sort(arr, n);
    }
private:
    void bubble_sort(int arr[], int n){
        //implemetation
    }
};

class MergeSort: public SortingAlgo
{
public:
    void sort(int arr[], int n){
        this->mergeSort(arr, 0, n - 1);
    }
private:
    void mergeSort(int arr[], int l, int r){
        //recursive implemetation
    }
    void merge(int arr[], int l, int m, int r){
        //implemenation
    }
};