QList pointer function to abstract class

Question

I feel dumb for asking this question because it seems like it would be simple but I don't know how to do it and I can't find it anywhere on the internet. I'm trying to make a function that will return a QList to standard output, the pointer to the abstract class is confusing me. The AbstractStudent class generates an instance of another class Student. here is the function:

QList<AbstractStudent*>* StudentList::returnList() const{


}

Answer 1

A list which stores pointers of an abstract class will be able to store pointers to any sub class of that abstract class.

Think of the following:

AbstractStudent.h:

class AbstractStudent 
{
    // ...
};

Student.h:

class Student : public AbstractStudent
{
    // ...
};

Any other class .cpp:

QList< AbstractStudent* > studentList;

// Each of the following works:
AbstractStudent* student1 = new Student( /* ... */ );
studentList.append( student1 );

Student* student2 = new Student( /* ... */ );
studentList.append( student2 );

Student* student3 = new Student( /* ... */ );
AbstractStudent* student3_1 = student3;
studentList.append( student3 );

I am however a bit confused of your last sentence, claiming that AbstractStudent generates Student objects. I would have expected that Student inherits AbstractStudent and some other class generates Student objects, like in my example.