Re: diff between user defined delete and delete[]

From:
Salt_Peter <pj_hern@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:44:13 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<9ed0589d-cc95-43f7-8e53-23ab8d6b0678@e38g2000prn.googlegroups.com>
On Nov 17, 4:13 am, mail....@gmail.com wrote:

Suppose in a class we overload four operators:
operator new
operator delete
operator new[]
operator delete[]

class Test{
public:
        void * operator new (size_t t){
                cout<<"\nCalling... new";
                return malloc(t);
        }
        void operator delete (void *p){
                cout<<"\nCalling ... delete";
                free(p);
        }
        void * operator new [] (size_t t){
                cout<<"\nCalling ... new[]";
                return malloc(t);
        }

        void operator delete [] (void *p){
                cout<<"\nCalling ... delete[]";
                free(p);
        }

};

If we perform
Test *p=0; delete p;
It calls operator delete.

But if we perform
Test *p=0; delete []p;
It doesn't call operator delete[] until and unless we don't call
operator new[]. Means If we do like this;
Test *p=0; p=new Test[10]; delete[] p; It calls operator delete[].

Why???


The FAQ covers the subject. Read the 2 common techniques used with
primitive arrays

[16.14] After p = new Fred[n], how does the compiler know there are n
objects to be destructed during delete[] p?
http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/freestore-mgmt.html#faq-16.14

Although in modern code unless there is a really good reason:
a) don't allocate on the heap manually, use smart pointers or RAII
b) prefer dynamic containers over primitive, fixed arrays
(std::vector, std::deque, etc)

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