Override delete operator

Question

I want to override delete operator in my class. Here\'s what I am trying to do,but not succeeding.

class Complex{              
    void *operator new(size_t         


        

Answer 1

Deleting through delete is quite strange, but deleting a void* is UB.

Also, size_t is not a built-in type: it is define in .

This can be fine:

#include 

class Complex
{              
    void *operator new(size_t s);
    void operator delete(void *ptr);
};

void* Complex::operator new(size_t s)
{ return new char[s]; } //allocate a buffer of s bytes

void Complex::operator delete(void *ptr)
{ delete[] static_cast(ptr); } //deallocate the buffer

Practically, we allocate/deallocate a buffer of appropriate size coherently in new / delete.

In new, we ask the system to give us the bytes we need. I used char[s] since char is the unit of memory size_t measures: sizeof(char) == 1 by definition.

In delete we have to give back to the system the bytes identified by ptr. Since we allocated them as char[], we have to delete them as char[], hence the use of delete[] and the cast to char*.