C++ Primer, Fifth Edition

15.4. Abstract Base Classes

Imagine that we want to extend our bookstore classes to support several discount strategies. In addition to a bulk discount, we might offer a discount for purchases up to a certain quantity and then charge the full price thereafter. Or we might offer a discount for purchases above a certain limit but not for purchases up to that limit.

Each of these discount strategies is the same in that it requires a quantity and a discount amount. We might support these differing strategies by defining a new class named Disc_quote to store the quantity and the discount amount. Classes, such as Bulk_item, that represent a specific discount strategy will inherit from Disc_quote. Each of the derived classes will implement its discount ...