Why is there no reallocation functionality in C++ allocators?

Question

In C the standard memory handling functions are malloc(), realloc() and free(). However, C++ stdlib allocators only parallel two of t

Answer 1

This is actually a design flaw that Alexandrescu points out with the standard allocators (not operator new[]/delete[] but what were originally the stl allocators used to implement std::vector, e.g.).

A realloc can occur significantly faster than a malloc, memcpy, and free. However, while the actual memory block can be resized, it can also move memory to a new location. In the latter case, if the memory block consists of non-PODs, all objects will need to be destroyed and copy-constructed after the realloc.

The main thing the standard library needs to accommodate this as a possibility is a reallocate function as part of the standard allocator's public interface. A class like std::vector could certainly use it even if the default implementation is to malloc the newly sized block and free the old one. It would need to be a function that is capable of destroying and copy-constructing the objects in memory though, it cannot treat the memory in an opaque fashion if it did this. There's a little complexity involved there and would require some more template work which may be why it was omitted from the standard library.

std::vector<...>::reserve is not sufficient: it addresses a different case where the size of the container can be anticipated. For truly variable-sized lists, a realloc solution could make contiguous containers like std::vector a lot faster, especially if it can deal with realloc cases where the memory block was successfully resized without being moved, in which case it can omit calling copy constructors and destructors for the objects in memory.