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Diffstat (limited to 'docs/contracts.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | docs/contracts.rst | 17 |
1 files changed, 14 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/docs/contracts.rst b/docs/contracts.rst index 561d2f97..677bc351 100644 --- a/docs/contracts.rst +++ b/docs/contracts.rst @@ -842,13 +842,14 @@ Solidity supports multiple inheritance by copying code including polymorphism. All function calls are virtual, which means that the most derived function is called, except when the contract name is explicitly given. -When a contract inherits from multiple contracts, only a single +When a contract inherits from other contracts, only a single contract is created on the blockchain, and the code from all the base contracts is copied into the created contract. The general inheritance system is very similar to `Python's <https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/classes.html#inheritance>`_, -especially concerning multiple inheritance. +especially concerning multiple inheritance, but there are also +some :ref:`differences <multi-inheritance>`. Details are given in the following example. @@ -1062,6 +1063,8 @@ contracts' constructors, it will be abstract. .. index:: ! inheritance;multiple, ! linearization, ! C3 linearization +.. _multi-inheritance: + Multiple Inheritance and Linearization ====================================== @@ -1074,7 +1077,13 @@ disallows some inheritance graphs. Especially, the order in which the base classes are given in the ``is`` directive is important: You have to list the direct base contracts in the order from "most base-like" to "most derived". -Note that this order is different from the one used in Python. +Note that this order is the reverse of the one used in Python. + +Another simplifying way to explain this is that when a function is called that +is defined multiple times in different contracts, the given bases +are searched from right to left (left to right in Python) in a depth-first manner, +stopping at the first match. If a base contract has already been searched, it is skipped. + In the following code, Solidity will give the error "Linearization of inheritance graph impossible". @@ -1093,6 +1102,8 @@ The reason for this is that ``C`` requests ``X`` to override ``A`` requests to override ``X``, which is a contradiction that cannot be resolved. + + Inheriting Different Kinds of Members of the Same Name ====================================================== |