pointers better than non-pointers?

will this clear the memory when it terminates:

Code:

---

// type 1
int main(void)
{
char x = 'x';
return 0;
}

---

compared to this? :

Code:

---

/ type 2
int main(void)
{
char *x = new char[1];
x = 'x';
delete [] x;

---

which one is more memory efficient? for type 1, will the memory be automatically cleared after execution or will type 2 do a better job or are they both the same? will type 2 cost less memory?

type 2 is actually better.. Type 1 holds all that memory until the end of the program...type 2 can actually free up that memory on that spot.

This kind of question is hard to answer because it depends on what you are creating.

The first type is good, coz you dont have to worry about memory management. Also, the memory that stores the char variable is stored on the stack, so yes, in this case the char will remain there til the end of the program because its' in the main function. But that's not going to be the case for every function....

the second type actually uses more memory than the first... because you have a pointer (which is 32 bits on PCs these days), which points to a char (which is usually 8 bits), so there are a total of 40 bits. or 5 bytes. the first is just a char being stored on the stack, which is just the one byte...

Also, another thing to keep in mind is that even though you may only declare a single char, which gets put on the stack when the function is called (as in type 1), 2 or 4 bytes may actually be allocated to keep the stack WORD or DWORD aligned. but that's a whole different story.

but ultimately it's harder to say which is better, it really depends on the circumstance.

hope that helps.
U.

>Type 1 holds all that memory until the end of the program

well, to be specific, until the end of the datas scope at least...

Two simple things you want to think about...
SIZE OVER SPEED or SPEED OVER SIZE..

well type 1 is faster, yet the memory management is not as efficient.

Type2 is slower, yet memory management is more efficient.

if you want to read up on a good memory management and when to use Dynamic over Static goto the MSDN code website and search through there, i read one couple months ago which was 25 pages and i thought it was good.