About RTTI

[Steven Lien]

Hi all

As far as i know, there has 2 ways RTTI in C++
one is dynamic_cast and another is typeid

Since, my book only pointed me that to use "typeid" and "static_cast"
conjunction will be much more efficient than "dynamic_cast",
but what the book does not provide any evidence.

So my question can any explain to me why dynmic_cast is slower than typeid??

And since it's much slower, why not simply throw it away


Any Help will be appreciated

 

[Buster]

Hi all

As far as i know, there has 2 ways RTTI in C++
one is dynamic_cast and another is typeid

Since, my book only pointed me that to use "typeid" and "static_cast"
conjunction will be much more efficient than "dynamic_cast",
but what the book does not provide any evidence.

I don't think that's true in general. In the example given in your book,
is the pointer type-checked once then used many times? If so, a
static_cast to the known object type will be faster than repeated
dynamic_casts. But I would use dynamic_cast to perform the check
in the beginning, unless there were a good reason not to.

 

[Victor Bazarov]

As far as i know, there has 2 ways RTTI in C++
one is dynamic_cast and another is typeid

Since, my book only pointed me that to use "typeid" and "static_cast"
conjunction will be much more efficient than "dynamic_cast",
but what the book does not provide any evidence.

Could it be because it's really nonsense?

So my question can any explain to me why dynmic_cast is slower than

typeid??

No. Because there is no such requirement or any evidence of that
in the language definition. You have to ask the authors of the
book you're referring to.

And since it's much slower, why not simply throw it away

Again, I am not sure where you got that "much slower" nonsense,
but I believe they both are in the language because they serve
different purposes.

Victor

 

[Mike Wahler]

Hi all

As far as i know, there has 2 ways RTTI in C++
one is dynamic_cast and another is typeid

Since, my book only pointed me that to use "typeid" and "static_cast"
conjunction will be much more efficient than "dynamic_cast",
but what the book does not provide any evidence.

Which book and author? Perhaps you need a better one.

-Mike

 

[Ivan Vecerina]

| As far as i know, there has 2 ways RTTI in C++
| one is dynamic_cast and another is typeid
|
| Since, my book only pointed me that to use "typeid" and "static_cast"
| conjunction will be much more efficient than "dynamic_cast",
| but what the book does not provide any evidence.
|
| So my question can any explain to me why dynmic_cast is slower than
typeid??
|
| And since it's much slower, why not simply throw it away

Slower at what ? They serve very different purposes.
Consider:

#include <typeinfo>

class One { public: virtual ~One(){} };
class Two : public One {};
class Three : public Two {};

void isThisATwo(One* p)
{
// which one of the following values do you want ???
bool same1 = ( 00 != dynamic_cast<Two*>(p) );
bool same2 = ( typeid(*p)==typeid(Two) );
}

int main()
{
Three p;
isThisATwo(&p); // which result do you want?
}

dynamic_cast does a more exhaustive search, to tell you
whether an instance is of a specific type, *OR* any type
derived from it. typeid() cannot provide this information.



Additionally, dynamic_cast can perform casts that are
not accessible to static_cast:
class Base1 { public: virtual ~Base1(){} };
class Base2 { public: virtual ~Base2(){} };
class Derived : public Base1, public Base2 {};

void f(Base1* p1)
{
// can't be done with a static_cast...
Base2* p2 = dynamic_cast<Base2*>(p1);
}

int main()
{
Derived d;
f( &d );
}


Make sure to read other books about C++...


Regards,