Dynamic Memory and the Free Store

Should I delete this?

Since I am responsible for memory allocated with new, should I delete this from within my class destructor?

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In general, you should not delete this from within a class destructor.

Here's why:

  1. If the object was allocated on the stack, calling delete on it would be undefined behavior, likely crashing your program.
  2. If the object was allocated with new, the code that created the object should also be responsible for deleting it. The destructor will be called automatically when delete is used on the object from outside the class.
  3. If you delete this from within the destructor, and the object was created with new, then the external code calling delete would be trying to delete an object that was already deleted. This is known as a "double free" error and typically leads to heap corruption.

So in summary, let the code that creates the object also be responsible for deleting the object. The destructor should only clean up resources that the class itself allocated.

Answers to questions are automatically generated and may not have been reviewed.

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