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It is perfectly legal to use

• malloc() and delete in the same program, or to use new and free() in the same program. But it is illegal, immoral, and despicable to call free() with a pointer allocated via new, or to call delete on a pointer allocated via malloc().
• Constructors/destructors: are aware of constructors and destructors, that means new OpenClass() calls OpenClass’s constructor. Similarly, delete p calls *p’s destructor, where as malloc(sizeof(OpenClass)), doesn’t invoke any constructor.
• Type safety: malloc() returns a void* which isn’t type safe. new OpenClass() returns a pointer of the right type (a OpenClass*).
• Overridability: new is an operator that can be overridden by a class, while malloc() is not overridable on a per-class basis.

• using realloc() on pointers allocated via new

  When realloc() has to copy the allocation, it uses a bitwise copy operation, which will tear many C++ objects to shreds. C++ objects should be allowed to copy themselves. They use their own copy constructor or assignment operator.

  Besides all that, the heap that new uses may not be the same as the heap that malloc() and realloc() use!

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Related Blog Items

• What are the two steps that happen when I say delete p?
• Does delete delete the pointer, or the pointed-to-data?
• Heap Overview
• Double Linked List With Out Using Special Head or Tail Node
• Circular Doubly Linked List With Out Using Special Head or Tail Node

This entry was written by ponnada and posted on December 7, 2006 at 9:23 pm and filed under MemoryManagement. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.