Do not mix hierarchies and arrays

Reason

An array of derived classes can implicitly "decay" to a pointer to a base class with potential disastrous results.

Example

Assume that Apple and Pear are two kinds of Fruits.

void maul(Fruit* p)
{
    *p = Pear{};     // put a Pear into *p
    p[1] = Pear{};   // put a Pear into p[1]
}

Apple aa [] = { an_apple, another_apple };   // aa contains Apples (obviously!)

maul(aa);
Apple& a0 = &aa[0];   // a Pear?
Apple& a1 = &aa[1];   // a Pear?

Probably, aa[0] will be a Pear (without the use of a cast!). If sizeof(Apple) != sizeof(Pear) the access to aa[1] will not be aligned to the proper start of an object in the array. We have a type violation and possibly (probably) a memory corruption. Never write such code.

Note that maul() violates the a T* points to an individual object rule.

Alternative: Use a proper (templatized) container:

void maul2(Fruit* p)
{
    *p = Pear{};   // put a Pear into *p
}

vector<Apple> va = { an_apple, another_apple };   // va contains Apples (obviously!)

maul2(va);       // error: cannot convert a vector<Apple> to a Fruit*
maul2(&va[0]);   // you asked for it

Apple& a0 = &va[0];   // a Pear?

Note that the assignment in maul2() violated the no-slicing rule.

Enforcement

• Detect this horror!