Why doesn't new in C++ return NULL on failure

Question

Why doesn\'t new return NULL on failure? Why does it throw an exception only on failure?

As it returns a pointer to the object on successes

Answer 1

It is by design. In C++ every kind of failure is notified by throwing an exception by default — streams, however, are exception, which does not throw exception (pun intended) by default.

You can use nothrow version as:

T *p = new (std::nothrow) T(args);

if ( p == nullptr ) //must check for nullity
{
     std::cout << "memory allocation failed" << std::endl;
}