This is a discussion on Pointer life & scope within the C++ Programming forums, part of the General Programming Boards category; If I create a pointer using the "new" keyword inside a function and pass that to a class constructor, what ...
If I create a pointer using the "new" keyword inside a function and pass that to a class constructor, what happens to the memory space and the object there? Will it live until I delete it in the class' destructor? The function leaving its scope shouldn't hurt it right? (The class object created is then returned from this function and used elsewhere)
The only way an object created with "new" will ever go away is by a "delete." A bare pointer has no destructor, it just goes away, leaving the object it was pointing to hanging in space.Originally Posted by 6tr6tr
Cool, thanks!
For every new or new [] there is an equal and opposite delete or delete [].
Function scope has nothing to do with heap memory, only stack variables (i.e. non-newed variables).
Didn't he say he was deleting in it the class destructor?
The question was "will it live until I delete it" which implies he is not presently deleting it, otherwise the question would not have been asked.
He's not presently deleting it as in as he typed the message? If he deletes it in the dtor, he deletes it.
Personally, I'd rather see him new it in the ctor, but that's another story.
It's also a highly use-case-specific one. For example, the class could expect to be passed a pointer to something polymorphic in the constructor, for its own exclusive use. (Of course, the constructor should then take a std::auto_ptr.) The class might not even know the particular implementation passed exists.
All the buzzt!
CornedBee
"There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
- Flon's Law
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