#include <iostream>
#include <sys/time.h>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

timeval end;
timeval beg;

class shape
{
public:
    virtual ~shape() {}
};

class square : public shape
{
    int val;
public:
    square() { val = 4; }
    void print() { cout << "Hi I am a square with " << val << " sides" << endl; }
};

class triangle : public shape
{
    int val;
public:
    triangle() { val = 3; }
    void print() { cout << "Hi I am a triangle " << val << " sides" << endl; }
};

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    square* sqr = new square;

    shape* shp = sqr;

    gettimeofday(&beg, NULL);

    // average of 3 micro seconds on my turion64 single core laptop
    triangle* t1 = static_cast<triangle*>(shp);

    gettimeofday(&end, NULL);

    t1->print();

    cout << (end.tv_sec - beg.tv_sec) * 1000000 + (end.tv_usec - beg.tv_usec) << " micro seconds for cast" << endl;
    return 0;
}