Mryntu

I have an abstract base class Node, which is derived from an abstract Interface class IObservable.
There is a several classes implementing the abstract IObservable: SingleObservable and MultiObservable

I want to create a class ObservableNode, derived from the base Node class and specify on its declaration which class to use for the implementation of the IObservable interface.

I've added using ... statements for every pure virtual method in IObservable, referring to the methods in the implementation classes but I still get errors saying that ObservableNode is an abstract class, missing the implementation of notifyObservers(IObject*).

If I add the parameter IObject* to the using statement I get an "expected ';' before '(' token" error

How can I solve this?

class IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~IObservable() ;
 virtual void notifyObservers(IObject*) = 0;
;
class SingleObservable: public IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~SingleObservable() ;
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 //some implementaiton
 ;
;
class MultiObservable: public IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~MultiObservable() ;
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 //some other implementaiton
 ;
;

class Node: public IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~Node() ;
;

class ObservableNode: public Node, public SingleObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~ObservableNode() ;
 using SingleObservable::notifyObservers;
 // using SingleObservable::notifyObservers(IObject*); // expected ';' before '(' token error

;


Node* node = new ObservableNode() // instantiating abstract class error, missing notifyObservers(IObject*) implementation

Your problem seems to be that you inherit Node which is still abstract, and also causes to introduce the good old multimple inheritance vicious diamond problem. When I change your code like this, the error disappears:

class Node: public IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~Node() ;
 // ** Added an implementation here **
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 //some other implementaiton
 ;
;

class ObservableNode: public virtual Node, public virtual SingleObservable 
 // ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
 public:
 virtual ~ObservableNode() ;
 using SingleObservable::notifyObservers;
;

int main() 
 Node* node = new ObservableNode();

See it live on coliru.

@πάντα ῥεῖ's answer describe one workaround, but possible this is not what OP is after here. Also, as my comment describe under the answer, the approach in the answer might give unexpected results e.g. when invoking node->notifyObservers(obj):

Note that in this particular example, Node* node = new
ObservableNode(); will mean node->notifyObservers(obj) will invoke
Node::notifyObservers(IObject*) and not
SingleObservable::notifyObservers(IObject*), which might be
unexpected, considering we instantiate an ObservableNode object
which specifies using SingleObservable::notifyObservers;.

In OP's original code, we are suffering from multiple inheritance ambiguity, as we are not using virtual inheritance when Node and SingleObservable (and MultiObservable) derives from IObservable:

class SingleObservable: public IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~SingleObservable() ;
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 //some implementaiton
 ;
;

class Node: public IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~Node() ;
;

Meaning our the object's memory layout, w.r.t. inheritance, of ObservableNode to looks like the following

 IObservable IObservable
 | |
 Node SingleObservable
 /
 ObservableNode

whereas, in this context, we are likely to want an object's memory layout looking as follows

 IObservable
 / 
 Node SingleObservable
 /
 ObservableNode

If we were to correct this, Node can stay abstract, and a call to node->notifyObservers(obj) with node as OP's example will result in invocation of SingleObservable::notifyObservers, as might have been expected.

class Node: public virtual IObservable 
 // ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
 public:
 virtual ~Node() ;
;

class SingleObservable: public virtual IObservable 
 // ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
 public:
 virtual ~SingleObservable() ;
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 std::cout << "SingleObservable::notifyObservers";
 ;
;

struct DummyObj : public IObject ;

int main() 
 Node* node = new ObservableNode();
 DummyObj obj;
 node->notifyObservers(obj); // SingleObservable::notifyObservers

Note that we not need virtual inheritance for when ObservableNode derives from Node and SingleObservable.

Finally, if we'd want Node be non-abstract (specifically, to provide an override of void notifyObservers(IObject*)), then ObservableNode must provide it's own (final) override of it, as we will otherwise inherit two final overrides of it in ObservableNode (one from Node and one from SingleObservable). In this case, ObservableNode could simply define its own override which explicitly calls the base class of choice, e.g.

class Node: public virtual IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~Node() ;
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 std::cout << "Node::notifyObservers";
 ;
;

class SingleObservable: public virtual IObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~SingleObservable() ;
 void notifyObservers(IObject*) override 
 std::cout << "SingleObservable::notifyObservers";
 ;
;

class ObservableNode: public Node, public SingleObservable 
 public:
 virtual ~ObservableNode() ;
 // Non-ambiguous final override in ObservableNode.
 // We could use `override` specifier here, but we might as well
 // use `final`, if we are not expecting something to derive from ObservableNode.
 void notifyObservers(IObject* obj) final 
 SingleObservable::notifyObservers(obj);
 ;
;

struct DummyObj : public IObject ;

int main() 
 Node* node = new ObservableNode();
 DummyObj obj;
 node->notifyObservers(obj); // SingleObservable::notifyObservers

See ISO C++ FAQ - Inheritance — Multiple and Virtual Inheritance for details on the diamond inheritance structure and virtual inheritance.