dynamic_cast to another base class

[Aseem Rastogi <aseem at india dot tejasnetworks dot com>]

Hi,

I have follwoing situation.

class A;

class B : public A;

class C;

class D : public B,  public C

class E
{
   private:
       A* a;
  
   public:
       A* getA ();

       E ()
       {   
           a = new D ();
       }   
}

int main ()
{
   E e;

   A* a = e->getA ();

   C* c = dynamic_cast<C*> (a); // fails !!!
}


Why does dynamic_cast fail ??

Anyway I could actually dynamic_cast to first D* and then static cast to 
C*. But the problem is there could be D1, D2 etc. which all follow same 
hierarchy and I don't know exact class in main code.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Aseem.

--
If you are good, you will be assigned all the work.  If you are real good, you will get out of it