Does it make any difference whether I place the virtual
keyword in a function declaration before or after the return value type?
virtual void DoSomething() = 0;
void virtual DoSomething() = 0;
I found the void virtual
syntax while refactoring some legacy code, and was wondering that it is compiling at all.
Both the statements are equivalent.
But the 1st one is more conventional. Because, generally mandatory fields are kept closest to any syntax (i.e. the function prototype in your example).
virtual
is an optional keyword (it's needed for pure virtual
though). However return type (here void
) is a mandatory keyword, which is always required. So people keep virtual
on the left most side and the return
type a little closer to the function signature.
Another example: I generally see that in below code 1st syntax is more popular for the same reason:
const int i = 0; // 1
int const i = 0; // 2