Different object names

[xcmir]

Hi there everyone
If I need to pass a range of objects into some functions for processing, what would be the best way to specify which objects to process and which ones not to process??I could use a large bunch of if statements and say that If(what I want to filter==car){do car filtering} if(what I want to filter==bus){do bus filtering} However this soon becomes very dedious and not very efficicient. Is there an easy way to solve this? I know that you can use templates for different data types, but is it possible to do the same for different object names?

Cheers

[Galik]

There are two approaches to this that I can think of. One if function overloading and the other involves giving your objects the ability to filter themselves:

Overloading functions

void do_filtering(bus& v)
{
	// do bus filtering
}

void do_filtering(car& v)
{
	// do car filtering
}

int main()
{
	// do stuff
	car c;
	bus b;

	do_filtering(c); // will call car filtering function
	do_filtering(b); // will call bus filtering function
}

Or make your objects able to filter themselves:

class vehicle
{
public:
	virtual void filter() = 0;
}

class car
: public vehicle
{
public:
	virtual void filter()
	{
		// do car filtering
	}
}

class bus
: public vehicle
{
public:
	virtual void filter()
	{
		// do bus filtering
	}
}

int main()
{
	// do stuff
	car c;
	bus b;

	c.filter(); // will call car filtering function
	b.filter(); // will call bus filtering function
}

[xcmir]

ah yes, I see what you mean, The main problem I have is that I have about 7 different processing functions and not just one....I guess there possibibly isnt an easy method to solve it...

[Galik]

At the end of the day you can not avoid having to do seven different things. All you can do is organise it in a way that is easiest to understand.