How to know what type of object is pointing a base class pointer?

Question

I have a base class named Cell (other class has a pointer to an object of this class), and 3 derivated classes CellA, CellB and CellC. When a cell is dead, the pointer points to

Answer 1

In case your classes are polymorphic You can use dynamic_cast.
dynamic_cast allows you to safely downcast pointers.
In your case, You can use dynamic_cast to check if the Base class pointer is pointing to a derived instance, dynamic_cast can report you that information.

Answer 2

use dynamic_case or typeid() to know the object at runtime...

Answer 3

Maybe you need a little bit different logic, take a look on states design pattern I think it could help you. Normally the casting is a bad thing and should be avoided. If you need a casting then you probably have a design issue....

Good Luck