Copy constructor needs to call a method that depends on the object, but constructor can't be virtual

Question

I have an abstract base class with two inherited classes. In both these classes I define a virtual method that is used by the constructor. Now I need to create a copy constr

Answer 1

We'd have to know exactly what you are trying to achieve to know what the right solution is.

However there is no problem in calling a virtual function on the object being copied, as that is already a fully constructed object. You can also feed the "this" into it, as long as that function knows that the pointer being passed in is not fully constructed yet. Thus:

T::T( const T & other )
{
   other.some_virtual_method(this); // legal but potentially dangerous
}

void T::some_virtual_method( T* other ) const
{
   other->another_virtual_method(); // dangerous in this situation
}