Test whether a class is polymorphic

Question

We have a sub-project 'commonUtils' that has many generic code-snippets used across the parent project. One such interesting stuff i saw was :-

/*********************************************************************
If T is polymorphic, the compiler is required to evaluate the typeid 
stuff at runtime, and answer will be true.  If T is non-polymorphic, 
the compiler is required to evaluate the typeid stuff at compile time, 
whence answer will remain false
*********************************************************************/
template <class T> 
bool isPolymorphic() { 
   bool answer=false; 
   typeid(answer=true,T()); 
   return answer; 
}

I believed the comment and thought that it is quite an interesting template though it is not used across the project. I tried using it like this just for curiosity ...

class PolyBase {
public:
   virtual ~PolyBase(){}
};

class NPolyBase {
public:
   ~NPolyBase(){}
};


if (isPolymorphic<PolyBase>())
  std::cout<<"PolyBase = Polymorphic\n";
if (isPolymorphic<NPolyBase>())
  std::cout<<"NPolyBase = Also Polymorphic\n";

But none of those ever returns true. MSVC 2005 gives no warnings but Comeau warns typeid expression has no effect. Section 5.2.8 in the C++ standard does not say anything like what the comment says i.e. typeid is is evaluated at compile time for non-polymorphic types and at runtime for polymorphic types.

1) So i guess the comment is misleading/plain-wrong or since the author of this code is quite a senior C++ programmer, am i missing something?

2) OTOH, I am wondering if we can test whether a class is polymorphic(has at least one virtual function) using some technique?

3) When would one want to know if a class is polymorphic? Wild guess; to get the start-address of a class by using dynamic_cast<void*>(T) (as dynamic_cast works only on polymorphic classes).

Awaiting your opinions.

Thanks in advance,

Answer 1

Since C++11, this is now available in the <type_traits> header as std::is_polymorphic. It can be used like this:

struct PolyBase {
  virtual ~PolyBase() {}
};

struct NPolyBase { 
  ~NPolyBase() {}
};

if (std::is_polymorphic<PolyBase>::value)
  std::cout << "PolyBase = Polymorphic\n";
if (std::is_polymorphic<NPolyBase>::value)
  std::cout << "NPolyBase = Also Polymorphic\n";

This prints just "PolyBase = Polymorphic".

Answer 2

One can use the facts that:

1. dynamic_cast fails at compile time if the argument is not a polymorphic class. So that it can be used with SFINAE.
2. dynamic_cast<void*> is a valid cast that returns the address of the complete polymorpic object.

Hence, in C++11:

#include <iostream>
#include <type_traits>

template<class T>
auto is_polymorphic2_test(T* p) -> decltype(dynamic_cast<void*>(p), std::true_type{});

template<class T>
auto is_polymorphic2_test(...) -> std::false_type;

template<class T>
using is_polymorphic2 = decltype(is_polymorphic2_test<T>(static_cast<T*>(0)));

struct A {};
struct B { virtual ~B(); };

int main() {
    std::cout << is_polymorphic2<A>::value << '\n'; // Outputs 0.
    std::cout << is_polymorphic2<B>::value << '\n'; // Outputs 1.
}