Re: Why doesn't the class/object keep its internal data properly when returned from function?

From:
pjb@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon)
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:01:37 +0200
Message-ID:
<7clk2xhq1a.fsf@pbourguignon.anevia.com>
Rob <someidunknown1234@yahoo.com> writes:

I have a vector of a class type and when I create an object inside a
function and return that and add it to the vector, it doesn't properly
keep the data inside it. So I have a few questions:

1. Is this because it loses scope since it wasn't created with "new"?
2. If I do create it with new, but the vector holds objects not
pointers, will the vector's "delete" operator function still handle
deleting all those pointers?

CODE 1:

//Doing without "new"

SomeClass create(string name)
{
     return SomeClass( name );
}

int main()
{
     std::vector<SomeClass> p;
     p.push_back( create( "Fred" ) );
}

CODE 2:

//Doing with "new"

SomeClass create(string name)
{
     return *( new SomeClass( name ) );
}

int main()
{
     //Will calling "delete p" also delete all the pointers created
for the data it holds?
     std::vector<SomeClass> p;
     p.push_back( create( "Fred" ) );
}


Both should work well. The second will leak memory (because you're
taking copies of the objects instead of keeping the pointers).

Things go better when you present fully compilable code:

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;

class SomeClass {
public:
string name;
SomeClass(string aName):name(aName){};
};

void dump(vector<SomeClass>& v){
    vector<SomeClass>::iterator it;
    int i;
    for(i=0,it=v.begin();it!=v.end();i++,it++){
        cout<<i<<": "<<it->name<<endl;
    }
}

SomeClass create1(string name)
{
    return SomeClass( name );
}

void code1(void)
{
    std::vector<SomeClass> p;
    p.push_back( create1( "Fred" ) );
    p.push_back( create1( "Merc" ) );
    dump(p);
}

SomeClass create2(string name)
{
    return *( new SomeClass( name ) );
}

void code2(void)
{
    std::vector<SomeClass> p;
    p.push_back( create2( "Fred" ) );
    p.push_back( create2( "Merc" ) );
    dump(p);
}

int main(void){
    code1();
    code2();
    return(0);
}

/*
-*- mode: compilation; default-directory: "~/src/tests-c++/" -*-
Compilation started at Mon Apr 28 19:01:04

p=test-create ; cd /home/pjb/src/tests-c++/ ; g++ -o $p ${p}.c++ && ./$p
0: Fred
1: Merc
0: Fred
1: Merc

Compilation finished at Mon Apr 28 19:01:04
 */

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