What do I need to do before deleting elements in a vector of pointers to dynamically allocated objects?

by
  1. Yes
  2. Vectors are implemented using template memory allocators that take care of the memory management for you, so they are somewhat special. But as a general rule of thumb, you don’t have to call delete on variables that aren’t declared with the new keyword because of the difference between stack and heap allocation. If stuff is allocated on the heap, it must be deleted (freed) to prevent memory leaks.
  3. No. You explicitly have to call delete myVec[index] as you iterate over all elements.

Ex:

for(int i = 0; i < myVec.size(); ++i)
   delete myVec[i];

With that said, if you’re planning on storing pointers in a vector, I strongly suggest using boost::ptr_vector which automatically takes care of the deletion.

More Related Contents:

  1. Avoid memory leaks in C++ Pointers [closed]
  2. What happen to pointers when vectors need more memory and realocate memory?
  3. C++ Memory Leak Using char *
  4. Is it safe to delete a NULL pointer?
  5. Why does the use of ‘new’ cause memory leaks?
  6. Dynamically allocating an array of objects
  7. What happens in a double delete?
  8. How to avoid memory leaks when using a vector of pointers to dynamically allocated objects in C++?
  9. Determine the size of a C++ array programmatically?
  10. How to use an iterator?
  11. Are memory leaks “undefined behavior” class problem in C++?
  12. How to know if a pointer points to the heap or the stack?
  13. std::vector and contiguous memory of multidimensional arrays
  14. Pointer-to-pointer dynamic two-dimensional array
  15. Initial capacity of vector in C++
  16. What happens when you deallocate a pointer twice or more in C++?
  17. Check if a pointer points to allocated memory on the heap
  18. Reason why not to have a DELETE macro for C++
  19. dynamically allocated memory after program termination
  20. vector memory allocation strategy
  21. “Right” way to deallocate an std::vector object
  22. C++ is it necessary to delete dynamically allocated objects at the end of the main scope?
  23. C++ delete does not free all memory (Windows)
  24. When to use references vs. pointers
  25. C++ Erase vector element by value rather than by position? [duplicate]
  26. Is a moved-from vector always empty?
  27. dereferencing the null pointer
  28. What are the Issues with a vector-of-vectors?
  29. When do programmers use Empty Base Optimization (EBO)
  30. C++ Access derived class member from base class pointer

Leave a Comment