As per cppref:
Using-declaration introduces a member of a base class into the derived class definition, such as to expose a protected member of base as public member of derived.
However, the following code can't compile:
class A {
protected:
A(int, int) {
}
};
class B : public A {
public:
using A::A;
};
int main() {
B(1, 2); // error: calling a protected constructor of class 'A'
}
Why can't C++ using-declaration expose a protected member of base as a public member of derived as expected?
Note on the same page the section on inheriting constructors states:
If overload resolution selects an inherited constructor, it is accessible if it would be accessible when used to construct an object of the corresponding base class: the accessibility of the using-declaration that introduced it is ignored.
(emphasis mine)
Note the emphasized part "the accessibility of the using-declaration that introduced it is ignored". And since the base class constructor A::A(int, int)
is protected
(meaning it is inaccessible inside main
), we get the mentioned error.
The same can be seen from namespace.udecl#16:
A using-declaration has the usual accessibility for a member-declaration. Base-class constructors considered because of a using-declarator are accessible if they would be accessible when used to construct an object of the base class; the accessibility of the using-declaration is ignored.