C++ idiom to avoid memory leaks?

Question

In the following code, there is a memory leak if Info::addPart1() is called multiple times by accident:

typedef struct
{
}part1;

typedef struct
{
}         


        

Answer 1

Use construction is initialization instead.

class Info
{
    private:
    part1* _ptr1;
    part2* _ptr2;    

    public:
    Info() : _ptr1(new part1), _ptr2(new part2)
    {
    }

    ~Info()
    {
      delete _ptr1; 
      delete _ptr2;
    }
};

But in this case you might as well create the parts on the stack, so no new and delete is required.

class Info
{
    private:
    part1 _part1;
    part2 _part2;    

    public:
    Info()
    {
    }

    ~Info()
    {
    }
};

But I guess you want the pointers to be lazy created, then I wouldn't suggest to create public class methods that takes care of the initializations. This should be handled internally in the class, when the class need to allocate them.