Or is it not possible, and I have to do a deep copy. Lets say I have an object A, and I want to make a shallow copy of A into B. If I delete A, and A destroys all if its members, then B would have dangling pointers. If A doesn't destroy its members, then B's pointers are still good. However, if I delete B, then its members won't be destroyed when B gets destroyed, so I will leak memory. Is there a way for an object to know when it has the only reference to memory, and delete it? Or is this not possible, and I have to use a deep copy.
Asked
Active
Viewed 288 times
-1
Blubber
- 1,375
- 1
- 15
- 32
-
1Use-case for `std::shared_ptr` See: http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/memory/shared_ptr – Richard Critten Feb 04 '18 at 21:59
-
Agreed, look at `std::shared_ptr`. – user253751 Feb 04 '18 at 21:59
1 Answers
0
Is there a way for an object to know when it has the only reference to memory, and delete it?
Yes, it's called std::shared_ptr.
Christian Hackl
- 27,051
- 3
- 32
- 62
-
-
1@Blubber Make design decisions on ownership and lifetime; this is not a coding issue but a design problem - how long should objects live for and who is responsible for them. `std::shared_ptr` is a simple answer to _"I don't know"_ but often the problem can be designed away. – Richard Critten Feb 04 '18 at 23:48
-
@RichardCritten: Exactly. In my experience, it's rare that `std::shared_ptr` is really the implementation of a robust design, especially since `std::unique_ptr` came along. – Christian Hackl Feb 05 '18 at 06:34