Ambiguity in multiple inheritance

 Ambiguity means an unclear situation. Two base classes can have functions with same name while the class derived from both the base classes has no function with same name. How do objects of the derived class access the correct base class function?

Now the program has derived class medical with two base classes, namely student and academic. We see both the base classes have functions with same name, which certainly lead to a problem when a class derives features from both. The derived class will have two different functions with the same name. The ambiguity occurs only when we use the name of the function. To call a function, the name of the function alone is insufficient, since the compiler is meant. To overcome this problem the functions are invoked long with name of class and scope resolution operator as follows:

student::output()

academic::output()

The compiler distinguishes the above two member functions by identifying them with the class to which they belong. So scope resolution operator plays an important role to point the objects and map the respective functions.

Other Recommended posts

• Introduction
• Access Controls
• Types of Derivations
• Classification of Inheritance
• Single Inheritance
• Multilevel Inheritance
• Hierarchical Inheritance
• Multiple Inheritance
• Hybrid Inheritance
• Virtual Base Class
• Derived Class Construction and Destructor