when should I use the new operator in C++

Question

Say I have a class called Money which has parameters Dollars and Cents

I could initialize it in the followings 2 ways:

Answer 1

In general, you would use form 1 when the object has a limited life span (within the context of a block) and use form 2 when the object must survive the block it is declared in. Let me give a couple of examples:

int someFunc() {
    Money a(3,15);
    ...
} // At this point, Money is destroyed and memory is freed.

Alternatively, if you want to have the objects survive the function, you would use new as follows:

Money *someOtherFunc() {
    Money *a = new Money(3,15);
    ....
    return a;
} // we have to return a here or delete it before the return or we leak that memory.

Hope this helps.