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

in C++, operator new is not only to allocate a chunk of memory, it is also class construction. thus, in semantic, operator new is much richer than function malloc. via exceptions, we get better informations and we can handle construction failures better.