Uses of destructor = delete;

Question

Consider the following class:

struct S { ~S() = delete; };

Shortly and for the purpose of the question: I cannot create instances of

Answer 1

one scenario could be the prevention of wrong deallocation:

#include 

struct S {
    ~S() = delete;
};


int main() {

    S* obj= (S*) malloc(sizeof(S));

    // correct
    free(obj);

    // error
    delete obj;

    return 0;

}

this is very rudimentary, but applies to any special allocation/deallocation-process (e.g. a factory)

a more 'c++'-style example

struct data {
    //...
};

struct data_protected {
    ~data_protected() = delete;
    data d;
};

struct data_factory {


    ~data_factory() {
        for (data* d : data_container) {
            // this is safe, because no one can call 'delete' on d
            delete d;
        }
    }

    data_protected* createData() {
        data* d = new data();
        data_container.push_back(d);
        return (data_protected*)d;
    }



    std::vector data_container;
};