Why do I need to delete[]?

Question

Lets say I have a function like this:

int main()
{
    char* str = new char[10];

    for(int i=0;i<5;i++)
    {
        //Do stuff with str
    }

    d         


        

Answer 1

Important note : delete's freeing of memory is almost just a side-effect. The important thing it does is to destruct the object. With RAII designs, this could mean anything from closing files, freeing OS handles, terminating threads, or deleting temporary files.

Some of these actions would be handled by the OS automatically when your process exits, but not all.

In your example, there's no reason NOT to call delete. but there's no reason to call new either, so you can sidestep the issue this way.

char str[10];

Or, you can sidestep the delete (and the exception safety issues involved) by using smart pointers...

So, generally you should always be making sure your object's lifetime is properly managed.

But it's not always easy: Workarounds for the static initialization order fiasco often mean that you have no choice but to rely on the OS cleaning up a handful of singleton-type objects for you.