Are there any issues with allocating memory within constructor initialization lists?

Question

I have used initialization lists a great deal in my C++ programs but wasn\'t aware that you could allocate memory within them.

So you can do something (as a contrive

Answer 1

Suppose that you have:

class Foo
{
public:
    T* p1;
    T* p2;

    Foo()
    : p1(new T),
      p2(new T)
    {
    }
};

If initializing p2 fails (either because new throws an out of memory exception or because the T constructor fails), then p1 will be leaked. To combat this, C++ allows using try/catch in initialization lists, but it's usually pretty gross.