object-lifetime

From http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/string/byte/memcpy : If the objects are not TriviallyCopyable (e.g. scalars, arrays, C-compatible structs), the behavior is undefined. At my work, we have used std::memcpy for a long time to bitwise swap objects that are not TriviallyCopyable using: void swapMemory(Entity* ePtr1, Entity* ePtr2) { static const int size = sizeof(Entity); char swapBuffer[size]; memcpy(swapBuffer, ePtr1, size); memcpy(ePtr1, ePtr2, size); memcpy(ePtr2, swapBuffer, size); } and never had any issues. I understand that it is trivial to abuse std::memcpy with non-TriviallyCopyable

When exactly are objects destroyed in C++, and what does that mean? Do I have to destroy them manually, since there is no Garbage Collector? How do exceptions come into play? (Note: This is meant to be an entry to Stack Overflow's C++ FAQ . If you want to critique the idea of providing an FAQ in this form, then the posting on meta that started all this would be the place to do that. Answers to that question are monitored in the C++ chatroom , where the FAQ idea started out in the first place, so your answer is very likely to get read by those who came up with the idea.) fredoverflow In the