freeing a void pointer

Question

How to free a void pointer.

struct vStruct {
    void *vPtr;
    struct vStruct *next;
};

struct vStruct sObj;
struct vStruct *sObjNew = sObj;

delete sObjNew-&         


        

Answer 1

You do not delete a void pointer. Why? Because:

'delete', applied to void* argument has undefined behavior, and most likely does not invoke the object's destructor.

How would your compiler know which type the pointee object has? And therefore which destructor to call? (Though it can probably determine how much memory to free, depending on the allocation mechanism.)

Do not store a void* — use a "real" pointer type instead. If you need to "hide" the true type, consider employing polymorphism instead of antiquated C practices.