Pointers to Subclasses

• VERY IMPORTANT: A pointer to a class can also point to an instance of a subclass (infinitely far down the class hierarchy)

employee e;

manager m;

employee *pe;

manager *pm;

pe = &e; // legal

pe = &m; // legal

pm = &e; // ERROR

pm = &m; // legal

This lets you maintain a linked list of employees -- both managers and non-managers! That isn’t possible in C.

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