Virtual destructor: is it required when not dynamically allocated memory?

Question

Do we need a virtual destructor if my classes do not allocate any memory dynamically ?

e.g.

class A
{
      private: 
      int a;
      int b;

             


        

Answer 1

Freeing memory is not the only critical function a destructor can perform. It can also be used to reset global state for instance. Not doing this won't leak memory but could potentially cause other issues in your program.

Additionally, even if your destructor doesn't do anything useful today, it may at some point in the future. There's no real reason to avoid a virtual destructor if you have inheritance so why not just add it and sleep better at night?