C++ polymorphism - calling subclass methods from superclass

Question

I was trying to store some objects in a vector, subclasses from Animal. I structured it, so that i would have a super class, Animal , which had Reptile and Mammal as subclasses. So far, these should be abstract, as I implemented abstract methods on them.

Each one with subclasses, for example, Crocodile and Lizard as subclasses of Reptile , and Dog and Cat as subclasses of Mammal .

I was storing them in a vector, std::vector<Animal*> to have polymorphism, but I was having problems calling, for example, a Mammal -specific method, which doesn't make sense having in the Animal Superclass, because Reptile is a subclass of it.

std::vector<Animal*> _list_animals;
...
_list_animals[0] = new Dog();
_list_animals[0]->foo(); //foo is a virtual method from Animal, so no problems here

_list_animals[0]->bar(); //bar is a method from `Mammal` only, so it can't be called like this

How could I acess that method, without casting?

Answer 1

Redesign of your code structure so that you don't have this problem is your best choice. But if you insist on doing it this way, see this answer on StackOverflow:

Subclass Methods