Re: Best way to allocate memory for simple types and objects

From:
"kanze" <kanze@gabi-soft.fr>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
5 Sep 2006 10:11:39 -0400
Message-ID:
<1157443329.578507.27450@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
Dmytro Bablinyuk wrote:

I came across several possible ways of allocating memory for objects,
for example:

1. malloc(sizeof(T)*3)/free - raw memory

2. new T[3]/delete[] - buffer would be initialized to
default-constructed T objects.

3. operator new(sizeof(T)*3)/operator delete - raw memory

What the best way of allocating memory for simple types and objects?


For a single object: new T/delete T (and you can specify any
parameters you want for the initializer of T).

For an array of objects:
    std::vector< T > array( ... ) ;
To initialize all of them with a default value:
    std::vector< T > array( n ) ; // n is the dimension...
To initialize them from a static array:
    std::vector< T > array( start, finish ) ;

For objects the "new T[3]" looks like the best way since it
initializes the array, but what about simple types?


How are simple types different from anything lese?

There's almost never a reason to use the array form of
new---std::vector does the job much better. As to the other
forms, they return a void*, and should only be used when you
want raw memory, i.e. when you separate allocation and
construction.

Right now for "int *" I am using malloc, but would it be
better if I use "operator new" for instance? What the
advantages?


Type safety, to begin with. Use std::vector, and you'll not
have to worry about the delete, either.

--
James Kanze GABI Software
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