Override Qt slot in subclass

Question

I have a base class, which defines a Qt slot

class Base
{
public:
    Base()
    {
        connect(otherobject, SIGNAL(mySignal), this, SLOT(mySlot));
    }
public slots:
    virtual void mySlot()
    {}
}

Subclass A just implements some other stuff. Subclass B overrides the slot

class SubB : Base
{
public:
    SubB() : Base() 
    {
        // Necessary?
        connect(otherobject, SIGNAL(mySignal), this, SLOT(mySlot));
    }
public slots:
    virtual void mySlot() override
    {}
}

Does the override of the slot also replace the connection, which was done before in the Bass constructor (Ie The connect in SubB would be unnecessary)?

Answer 1

It gets better: you don't need any special treatment for the slot in the derived class. There's no need to make it virtual (it already is per C++ semantics), and there's no need to make it a slot again (it already is per Qt semantics). It is incorrect to add the second connection in Derived , it'll simply result in the slot being activated twice per every activation of the signal.

Remember that signals and slots are regular C++ methods, and that slots are invoked from machine-generated code that looks exactly as if you called the slot without specifying the particular class it should be in. Thus a virtual slot acts as you think it should, given the semantics of C++.

The below is sufficient:

class Base : public QObject
{
  Q_OBJECT
public:
  Base(QObject * src, QObject * parent = 0) : QObject(parent)
  { connect(src, SIGNAL(mySignal), SLOT(mySlot)); }
  Q_SLOT virtual void mySlot() {}
};

class Derived : public Base
{
  Q_OBJECT
public:
  Derived(QObject * src, QObject * parent = 0) : Base(src, parent) {}
  void mySlot() Q_DECL_OVERRIDE { ... }
};

Answer 2

You don't need to put the same connect in the subclass constructor. When a SubB object is created, the connect in the Base constructor will connect the right slot (the one overridden in SubB).