C++. Calling a virtual member function in destructor

Question

Every class that gets extended with this calls abort in the destructor and the call stack tells me that the function that called abort was called from a unreasonable spot in the header file. The other functions get overriden and work fine though.

Renderable.h

#pragma once
class Renderable
{
public:
    virtual void update(long delta) = 0;
    virtual void destroy() = 0;
    virtual void render() = 0;
    virtual ~Renderable();
};

Renderable.cpp

#include "Renderable.h"

Renderable::~Renderable()
{
    (this->*(&Renderable::destroy))(); // GLUtils::runOnUIThreadWithContext(this, &Renderable::destroy, true);
} // It says that it gets called from here.

Why don't you `press retry to debug the application`? And why don't you just call `destroy()`? — Simon Kraemer, Oct 02 '15 at 15:44
You know `(this->*(&Renderable::destroy))();` is just an absurdly complicated way of writing `destroy();` right? — Barry, Oct 02 '15 at 15:55

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 02 '15 at 15:47

When instantiating an object the base class gets initialized and then the subclass gets initialized. When destructing an object the subclass gets destructed and then the base class. After the subclass is destructed, its members and virtual methods are unavailable—there is no destroy() method to be invoked. I suggest you move the logic in the destroy() method to the subclass destructor.

C++. Calling a virtual member function in destructor

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