Why doesn't vector::clear remove elements from a vector?

Question

When I use clear() on a std::vector, it is supposed to destroy all the elements in the vector, but instead it doesn\'t.

Sample

Answer 1

From cppreference:

void clear();

Removes all elements from the container. Invalidates any references, pointers, or iterators referring to contained elements. May invalidate any past-the-end iterators. Many implementations will not release allocated memory after a call to clear(), effectively leaving the capacity of the vector unchanged.

So the reason there is no apparent problem is because the vector still has the memory available in store. Of course this is merely implementation-specific, but not a bug. Besides, as the other answers point out, your program also does have Undefined Behavior for accessing the cleared contents in the first place, so technically anything can happen.