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

How was vPtr initialised?

• If it points to data the struct doesn't own, you must not destroy it.
• If it points to data created using malloc, you should call free.
• If it points to data created using new, you'd need to cast it to the correct (or a compatible) type before calling delete to allow the correct destructor to be called.

Note that your example code won't compile but suggests vPtr is not being initialised at all. You must initialise vPtr in all vStruct instances you create. Attempting to free an uninitialised vPtr would have undefined consequences but would likely crash.