c++shared-ptrmultiple-inheritanceenable-shared-from-this

Double inheritance of enable_shared_from_this


I have an object (Z) which derives from two other objects (A and B).

A and B both derive from enable_shared_from_this<>, respectively enable_shared_from_this<A> and enable_shared_from_this<B>.

Of course I call shared_from_this() on Z. And of course the compiler reports this as ambiguous.

My questions are :

Note : I've found this other question bad weak pointer when base and derived class both inherit from boost::enable_shared_from_this but it doesn't really answer. Should I use the virtual trick too ?


Solution

  • Yes, as per bad weak pointer when base and derived class both inherit from boost::enable_shared_from_this the solution is to use virtual inheritance. Here's an implementation for the C++11 standard shared_ptr (not Boost):

    #include <memory>
    
    struct virtual_enable_shared_from_this_base:
       std::enable_shared_from_this<virtual_enable_shared_from_this_base> {
       virtual ~virtual_enable_shared_from_this_base() {}
    };
    template<typename T>
    struct virtual_enable_shared_from_this:
    virtual virtual_enable_shared_from_this_base {
       std::shared_ptr<T> shared_from_this() {
          return std::dynamic_pointer_cast<T>(
             virtual_enable_shared_from_this_base::shared_from_this());
       }
    };
    
    struct A: virtual_enable_shared_from_this<A> {};
    struct B: virtual_enable_shared_from_this<B> {};
    struct Z: A, B { };
    int main() {
       std::shared_ptr<Z> z = std::make_shared<Z>();
       std::shared_ptr<B> b = z->B::shared_from_this();
    }
    

    This isn't part of the default implementation, probably because of the overhead of virtual inheritance.