Freeing strings from class destructor

I have class, but I don't know how I should handle freeing its member string, when I don't have a prior knowledge of how the string would get allocated. So say that I created a class C1,

Code:

class C1
{
public:
c1() : str(NULL) {};
~c1() { delete [] str };

char* str;
};

Client 1 uses the class in following way

Code:

int main(...)
{
C1 c1;
c1.str = new char[256];
strcpy(c1.str, "here is some string");
return 0;
}

Client 2 uses the class in following way

Code:

int main(...)
{
C1 c1;
c1.str = "here is some string";
return 0;
}

Of course for the case of client 2, when the class object goes out of scope, its destructor would attemp to "delete []" the constant string which is illegal.

How do you guys handle this kind of scenario? Is commenting to warn class users the only option, or would there other way of handling this programmatically?

Would 1) create a set public function 2) always copy strings clients pass to the object 3) delete [] the copied string from destructor the only option?

Originally Posted by chiefmonkey

I have class, but I don't know how I should handle freeing its member string, when I don't have a prior knowledge of how the string would get allocated.

Unless you always allocate it yourself, you do not "own" it. Since you do not own it, you must never delete it.

Ideally, you would be using a std::string, and have an accessor function that returns this value by reference. Now there is no issue of ownership, and the destructor of std::string takes care of everything for you automatically.

Would 1) create a set public function 2) always copy strings clients pass to the object 3) delete [] the copied string from destructor the only option?

That is essentially what I recommend above, but I wouldn't use a bare char *, I'd use a std::string so even the delete[] step goes away.

That's indeed where encapsulation with clear ownership policies would help. But at the end of the day, it will not be possible to stop the user messing up.

Personally I'd use std::string.