vtable

English

Etymology

Shortening of virtual method table or virtual function table.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈviːteɪbəl/
• Rhymes: -eɪbəl

Noun

vtable (plural vtables)

1. (programming) A table of memory pointers to different implementations of a virtual function.

   Synonyms: vftable, VMT

   • 2000, Robert C. Martin, More C++ gems:

     This solution allows the Command executor to iterate through a collection of unrelated objects with no vtables and pick out the right method for each one.

   • 2003, John C. Mitchell, Concepts in programming languages:

     Note that nonvirtual functions do not appear in a vtable.

   • 2003, Steve Heller, C++: a dialogue: programming with the C++ standard library:

     The most likely result will be a crash when the code tries to use a vtable entry that contains random garbage.

Further reading

• virtual method table on Wikipedia.Wikipedia