Multiple dispatch in C++

Question

I am trying to understand what multiple dispatch is. I read a lot of various texts but I still have no idea what multiple dispatch is and what it is good for. Maybe the thing I am missing is piece of code using multiple dispatch. Please, can you write a little piece of code in C++ using multiple dispatch so that I can see it cannot be compiled/runned properly because C++ has only single dispatch? I need to see the difference. Thanks.

Answer 1

Multi-dispatch is the ability to choose which version of a function to call based on the runtime type of the arguments passed to the function call.

Here's an example that won't work right in C++ (untested):

class A { };
class B : public A { };
class C : public A { }


class Foo
{
  virtual void MyFn(A* arg1, A* arg2) { printf("A,A
"); }
  virtual void MyFn(B* arg1, B* arg2) { printf("B,B
"); }
  virtual void MyFn(C* arg1, B* arg2) { printf("C,B
"); }
  virtual void MyFn(B* arg1, C* arg2) { printf("B,C
"); }
  virtual void MyFn(C* arg1, C* arg2) { printf("C,C
"); }
};

void CallMyFn(A* arg1, A* arg2)
{
  // ideally, with multi-dispatch, at this point the correct MyFn() 
  // would be called, based on the RUNTIME type of arg1 and arg2
  pFoo->MyFn(arg1, arg2);
}

...

A* arg1 = new B();
A* arg2 = new C();
// Using multi-dispatch this would print "B,C"... but because C++ only
// uses single-dispatch it will print out "A,A"
CallMyFn(arg1, arg2);