Why don't derived classes have access to base class static methods?

Question

class A
{
   static void Method() { std::cout << "method called."; }
};

class B : public A
{
   // Has a bunch of stuff but not "Method"
};

int main()
{
   B::Method();
}

I know I could make it work by adding the following to B, but it would be nice if this weren't necessary, especially if there were several classes that derived from A.

   static void Method() { A::Method(); }

@jthill you're right. If it's public, it works just fine. Thanks. — sgryzko, Apr 07 '14 at 23:09

Kerrek SB · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-07T23:31:29.327

4

Members of classes declared with the class key are private by default. To make them public, you have to say:

class A
{
    public:
//  ^^^^^^^
        static void Method() { cout << "method called."; }
};

edited Apr 07 '14 at 23:31

answered Apr 07 '14 at 22:47

Kerrek SB

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My question has been edited. Even when explicitly made public, I'm still not able to access this method. – sgryzko Apr 07 '14 at 22:50
Do you mean to call `B::Method` in `main` and not `derived::Method` – vogomatix Apr 07 '14 at 22:54
@SteveJessop You're right. My bad. The errors have been fixed. – sgryzko Apr 07 '14 at 22:59
@KerrekSB I lied. I made it public and then it worked. – sgryzko Apr 07 '14 at 23:10
You'd better make it "protected" instead of "public". – Zinovy Nis Apr 08 '14 at 13:21

Why don't derived classes have access to base class static methods?

1 Answers1