Thread: Destructor not called in inheritance

  1. #1
    Confused Magos's Avatar
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    Destructor not called in inheritance

    I'm totally stalled, after battling this bug for hours after hours my worst fears came true. In the sample code below, where B inherits from A but is still pointed at by an A* pointer the B destructor IS NOT called (even if they use virtual methods). Now a solution/workaround to this is not hard to make, but is this really intended (standard) behavour or is my compiler just plain insane? I can't believe I've never discovered this earlier...
    Code:
    #include <iostream>
    
    class A
    {
    	public:
    		A() { std::cout << "A::A()" << std::endl; }
    		~A() { std::cout << "A::~A()" << std::endl; }
    
    	protected:
    };
    
    class B : public A
    {
    	public:
    		B() { std::cout << "B::B()" << std::endl; }
    		~B() { std::cout << "B::~B()" << std::endl; }
    
    	protected:
    };
    
    int main()
    {
    	A* b = new B();
    	delete b;
    
    	return 0;
    }
    MagosX.com

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  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    7,366
    You must make the destructor of the base class virtual. Then all will be well.

  3. #3
    Confused Magos's Avatar
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    thanks
    MagosX.com

    Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
    Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

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