Cannot instantiate abstract class with multiple inheritance c++

Question

I am getting the compiler error C2259 when instantiating a class that inherits from other classes, which having abstract methods.

The inheritance scheme is a little bit weird and opaque but I need to do it in this way due to some restrictions of the problem.

The inheritance scheme is as follow:

class A
{
public:
    enum Animal { CAT, DOG };
    enum Color { RED, GREEN };
    enum Food { MEAT, FISH };

protected:
    virtual Animal animal() const = 0;
    virtual Color color() const = 0;
    virtual Food food() const = 0;
};

class B: public A
{
Animal animal() const { return CAT; }
};

class C: public A
{
Color color() const { return GREEN; }
};

class D: public A
{
Food food() const { return FISH; }
};

And then I declare a class with multiple inheritance like this:

class E : public B, public C, public D
{
};

Here, when I try to instantiate the class E I am getting the compiler error C2259:

error C2259: 'E': cannot instantiate abstract class
note: due to following members:
note: 'A::Color A::color(void) const': is abstract
note: see declaration of 'A::color'
note: 'A::Food A::food(void) const': is abstract
note: see declaration of 'A::food'
note: 'A::Animal A::animal(void) const': is abstract
note: see declaration of 'A::animal'

What I am doing wrong?

Thank you very much

Javier

Answer 1

You have 3 different A objects inside E, you forgot to tag the inheritance as virtual so that the same A object is used:

class A
{
public:
    enum Animal { CAT, DOG };
    enum Color { RED, GREEN };
    enum Food { MEAT, FISH };

    virtual ~A(){}

protected:
    virtual Animal animal() const = 0;
    virtual Color color() const = 0;
    virtual Food food() const = 0;
};

class B: public virtual A
{
Animal animal() const override { return CAT; }
};

class C: public virtual A
{
Color color() const override { return GREEN; }
};

class D: public virtual A
{
Food food() const override { return FISH; }
};

class E : public B, public C, public D
{
};

int main()
{
    E e;
}