In object-oriented programming, a virtual class is an inner class that can be overridden by subclasses of the outer class.
Virtual classes are inner classes of another outer class, which behave like virtual functions. This means they can be overridden in a subclass of the outer class, and the run time type of a virtual class depends on the run time type of an object of the outer class. (Just like the run time type of an object decides which virtual function should be used.)
Like this a run time instance type of the outer class object not only decides on the polymorphic type of his own type object, but also on a whole family tree of virtual class members.
Famous quotes containing the words virtual and/or class:
“Tragedy dramatizes human life as potentiality and fulfillment. Its virtual future, or Destiny, is therefore quite different from that created in comedy. Comic Destiny is Fortune—what the world will bring, and the man will take or miss, encounter or escape; tragic Destiny is what the man brings, and the world will demand of him. That is his Fate.”
—Susanne K. Langer (1895–1985)
“Women ... are completely alone, though they were born and bred upon this soil, as if they belonged to another class in creation.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. F, Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Mirror of Fashions, pp. 363-4 (December 1870)