C++ inheritance - getClass() equivalent?

Question

Take the following C++ for example.

vector listAnimal;

class Fish : Animal ...
class Mammal : Animal ...
class Bird : Animal ...

Answer 1

A container only stores elements of a fixed type, you want a pointer to an object.

#include 
#include 

std::vector> animal_list;

animal_list.emplace_back(new Fish);
animal_list.emplace_back(new Mammal);
animal_list.emplace_back(new Bird );

Store Animal type in vector will cause object slice when push derived types into listAnimal.

 vector listAnimal;
 listAnimal.push_back(Fish);  // Fish is sliced to Animal, no fish for you.

Edit:

To know what type a derived animal is, you could store it in a member

Enum AnimalType
{
  FISH,
  MAMAL,
  BIRD
};

class Animal
{
public:
  Animal(AnimalType animal_type) : type(animal_type) {}
  AnimalType GetType() const { return type; }
private:
  AnimalType type;   
};