Monday, 6 March 2017

c++ - "undefined reference" to Virtual Base class destructor











I have some experience with Java, and am now doing a C++ course. I wanted to try writing an interface, but I have run into some trouble with destructors which I have not been able to resolve, even with the help on the Internet... Here's my code:



    class Force {

public:

virtual ~Force();
virtual VECTOR eval(VECTOR x, double t);


};

class InvSquare : public Force {

public:

InvSquare(double A) {

c = A;


}

~InvSquare(){};

VECTOR eval(VECTOR x, double t) { // omitted stuff }

private:
double c;


};


I have tried to declare a virtual destructor for the base class, and a non-virtual one for the derived class, but I get an error saying "undefined reference to `Force::~Force()'". What does it mean, and how can I fix it?



Forgive me if this is a silly question!



Thank you very much for your help,
noctilux


Answer




You've declared the destructor, but not defined it. Change the declaration to:



virtual ~Force() {}


to define it to do nothing.



You also want to make all the functions in the abstract interface pure virtual, otherwise they will need to be defined too:



virtual VECTOR eval(VECTOR x, double t) = 0;


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