Re: static class variable allocated at heap

From:
"kanze" <kanze@gabi-soft.fr>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
10 Jul 2006 17:39:37 -0400
Message-ID:
<1152534493.451036.201360@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
gelbeiche wrote:

a project I'm involved in has code in the form:

class toConnectionProvider
{
    static std::map<QCString, toConnectionProvider *> *Providers;
...
}

A provider can register itself in the map:

void toConnectionProvider::addProvider(const QCString &provider)
{
    checkAlloc();
    Provider = provider;
    (*Providers)[Provider] = this;
}

and there is a member function which checks if the map is allocated.

void toConnectionProvider::checkAlloc(void)
{
    if (!Providers)
        Providers = new std::map<QCString, toConnectionProvider *>;
}


Wouldn't it be more nature to call it getProviderMap, and have
it return a pointer to the map?

I have the following questions:
- AFAIK Providers is never "deleted" until program exit and usually
  I expect a new/delete pair for dynamic memory allocation.
  So I guess the idiom above(static class variable allocated at heap)
  is not kosher ?!


It depends. In this case, the map is really a singleton, and
it's usual for a singleton to never be destructed. (I tend to
refer to such objects as "pseudo-static" objects.)

- Is the code above a candidate for refactoring ?
  A quick change would be to convert
   map<>* Providers;
  to
   map Providers;
  Is it a essential improvement ?


It depends. Using the function avoids order of initialization
issues if a static object registers itself. It may also cause
threading issues in a multithreaded environment.

Note that if you want destruction, you can make the map a local
static variable in its getter function.

- Another idea would be to make a separate class
  toConnectionProviderManager which stores the providers in a container.
  Is it a good idea ?


There's no fixed rule. If the map is simple, as it is here, I
generally go they way you've gone here, with a couple of static
member functions to handle registration, lookup, and if
necessary, managing the singleton object. If the map is not
just a standard class, and has significant behavior, I'll make a
separate class of it.

--
James Kanze GABI Software
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