Pointer to object and destructor - c++

I am trying to understand why my code doesn't use destructor of class Name. In fact I write two classes. First one called Name and a second called Person that have a pointer to object Name. What I don't understand is why the program doesn't called to the destructor of Name, because I think when I write "new" I create a new object so it has to call to the destructor of class Name before closing program.
Can you explain what wrong in my understanding. Thanks !
class Name
{
private:
string name;
public:
Name(string name) : name(name) { cout << "Hello " << name << endl; }
~Name() { cout << "See you soon " << name; }
};
class Person
{
private:
Name* myname;
public:
Person(string name) { myname = new Name(name); }
~Person() { cout << "Exit" << endl; }
};
int main()
{
Person("Marc");
Person("Alex");
}

You are creating a memory leak here, because you create a new instance of Name here
Person(string name) { myname = new Name(name); }
but you never delete it. This is the reason why the destrcutor of Name is never called.
To avoid this you can use an std::unique_ptr or an std::shared_ptr, which will automatically handle the lifetime of such an object.
std::unique_ptr<Name> myname;
Person(string name) { myname = std::make_unique<Name>(name); }
An alternative is to delete the object in your destructor, but in C++ you should avoid direct handling of dynamic raw pointers.
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
class Name
{
private:
std::string name;
public:
Name(std::string name) : name(name) { std::cout << "Hello " << name << std::endl; }
~Name() { std::cout << "See you soon " << name << std::endl; }
};
class Person
{
private:
std::unique_ptr<Name> myname;
public:
Person(std::string name) { myname = std::make_unique<Name>(name); }
~Person() { std::cout << "Exit" << std::endl; }
};
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
Person("Marc");
Person("Alex");
return 0;
}

As myname object in Person's class is a pointer. For every pointer there must be a delete statement to deallocate the memory.
Replace Person's class Destructor as:
~Person() {
cout << "Exit" << endl;
delete myname;
}

Related

Why am i getting this error? "Child undeclared?

I'm writing some code to show inheritance.
In doing so, i want to illustrate it by having a base class that contains a vector of pointers that can hold object pointers of the derived class.
I'm getting this error that the "Child class is undeclared" in the base function "void addChild(string nm, string sm)" in the Parents class (base class). I do understand that it maybe out of scope in the base class.
Can someone provide me with a solution to this where i can still be able to instantiate an object of the derived class from within the base class.
I want to have everything done within the base class.
Please clarify if this is ok and is a good practice. If not, please suggest some ideas.
Here's my code:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
class Parents // base class
{
vector <Parents*> fam;
protected:
string firstName;
string lastName;
public:
Parents()
{
//default constructor
}
Parents(string fn, string ln)
{
firstName = fn;
lastName = ln;
}
void displayChildren()
{
if (fam.empty())
{
cout << "Vector is empty" << endl;
}
else
{
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < fam.size(); i++)
{
std::cout, fam.at(i);
}
}
}
void displayParentsInfo(Parents& const par)
{
cout << "First name : " << par.firstName << endl;
cout << "Last name : " << par.lastName << endl;
}
void addChild(string nm, string sm)
{
Child* c1 = new Child(nm, sm);
fam.push_back(c1);
}
};
class Child : public Parents //derived class
{
string firstname;
string surname;
public:
Child()
{
//default constructor
}
Child(string a, string b)
{
firstname = a;
surname = b;
}
//~Child()
//{
//destructor called
//}
void displayChildInfo(Child & const c)
{
cout << "Child's firstname : " << c.firstname;
cout << "Child's surname : " << c.surname;
}
};
Cheers!
Just move the definition of the function out of the definition of the class:
class Parents // base class
{
...
void addChild(string nm, string sm);
};
class Child : public Parents //derived class
{
...
};
void Parents::addChild(string nm, string sm)
{
Parents* c1 = new Child(nm, sm);
fam.push_back(c1);
}
As for good practice, it might be better to have a non-member function that prepares the Child and returns a pointer to it, and add something like:
void Parents::addToFam(Parents* c1)
{
fam.push_back(c1);
}

C++ newbie: Operation of make_shared

I am new to C++. Can someone please let me know what is wrong with the following code segment -
class Person {
public:
const std::string& name;
Person(const std::string& s): name(s) {}
void dump(void) const {
cout << name << endl;
//cout << &name << endl;
}
};
std::map<std::string, std::shared_ptr<Person>> plist;
std::string namestr = "Hoo";
std::shared_ptr<Person> r1(std::make_shared<Person>("Dull"));
plist.insert({"Key1", r1});
auto u = plist.find("Key1");
shared_ptr<Person> v = u->second;
v->dump();
plist.erase(plist.find("Key1"));
My intention is to create a database of Person objects and I was trying to use shared_ptr for that.
v->dump() causes a segmentation fault. However, if I use the 'namestr' variable instead of the string literal "Dull" then the v->dump() appears to work correctly, i.e. the following -
std::shared_ptr<Person> r1(std::make_shared<Person>(namestr));
Also, the following way also seems to work even though I use a string literal in the intializer.
std::shared_ptr<Person> r1(new Person("Dull"));
Pointers to the mistake I am making would be much appreciated!
class Person {
public:
const std::string& name;
Person(const std::string& s): name(s) {}
void dump(void) const {
cout << name << endl;
//cout << &name << endl;
}
};
this is storing a reference to a string whose life time is not guaranteed. You should do
class Person {
public:
const std::string name;
Person(const std::string& s): name(s) {}
void dump(void) const {
cout << name << endl;
//cout << &name << endl;
}
};
You code fails because "Dull" created a temporary string that went out of scope immediately

Utilizing constructor, destructor, and printing off objects - c++

Read the comments too.
Basically, I am trying to figure out object constructors, destructor, and classes. I created a class with a few public member variables, and a few private member variables. At this point I am only utilizing the public members within my code.
My question is, to put it quite simply, how do I utilize the constructor, destructor, and print off the objects info to the console.
Thanks.
#include <iostream>
// Class -> NPC
// Contains generic stats for an NPC in a game
class NPC
{
public:
char name;
int age;
char favoriteItem;
private:
char quest;
char nemesis;
int karma;
}
// Object Constructor
NPC::NPC (char newName, int newAge, char newFavoriteItem)
{
name = newName;
age = newAge;
favoriteItem = newFavoriteItem;
}
// Object Deconstructor
NPC::~NPC()
{
// Do nothing
}
// Here I would like to create a new NPC, bob, with a name of "Bob", age of 28, and his favorite items being a Sword
// Next, I attempt to use this information as output.
int main()
{
NPC bob("Bob",28, "Sword");
std::cout << bob << std::endl;
}
Fixed the char (only one character) to std::string. I added initialization list and std::ostream &operator << operator.
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/default_constructor
#include <iostream>
#include <memory>
#include <string.h>
class NPC
{
public:
std::string name;
int age;
std::string favoriteItem;
NPC(std::string const& name, int age, std::string favoriteItem)
: name(name), age(age), favoriteItem(favoriteItem)
{};
private:
char quest;
char nemesis;
int karma;
};
std::ostream &operator << (std::ostream &os, NPC const& npc)
{
os << npc.name << " " << npc.age << " " << npc.favoriteItem << "\n";
return os;
};
int main()
{
NPC npc("Bob", 28, "Sword");
std::cout << npc;
return 0;
}

how to copy part of char buffer to std::string?

I try to store instances of class Person in std::list Users. Before putting each instance to Users I want to copy first 10 bytes from buf to std::string Name. How can I do that?
class Person {
public:
Person(){ std::cout << "Constructing Person " << std::endl;}
private:
std::string Name;
};
int main() {
unsigned char buf[1024];
std::list<Person> Users;
Person ps;
Users.push_back(ps);
return 0;
}
You'll need to change your constructor for doing this:
class Person {
public:
Person(const char* buf_, size_type size_)
: name(buf_,size_) {
std::cout << "Constructing Person " << std::endl;
}
// ....
};
and in main() write
Person ps(buf,10);
You could provide an appropriate constructor for Person.
Person(std::string Name) : Name(std::move(Name)) {}
Definition of a Person would be
Person ps(std::string(buf, 10));
Or write directly:
Users.emplace_back( std::string(buf, 10) );

Copy constructor motivation - why my program don't crash?

I learned that one of the motivation for copy constructor using is to avoid of the follow crash in the program -
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class Employee {
public:
Employee(int ID,char const * name){...};
~Employee(){...};
// Methods
void Print();
private:
// members
int m_ID;
char* m_name;
};
void MyFunc(Employee emp) {
cout << "in MyFunc \n ";
}
int main() {
Employee One(1,"Garen Torosian");
// calling copy constructor
MyFunc(One);
cout << "In the end of main \n";
// Here the program crashes!
return 0;
}
as you can see the program should be crash before the return 0; , but when I run that program it works fine and terminated ok , why ?
Edit : In this case the program indeed crash -
// Employee.h
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
class Employee {
public:
Employee(int ID,
const char* name);
~Employee();
// Methods
void Print();
private:
// members
int m_ID;
char* m_name;
};
// Employee.cpp
#include "Employee.h“
Employee::Employee(int iID, const char *name){ // Ctor
cout << "Constructor called" << endl;
m_ID = iID;
m_name = new char [strlen(name) +1];
strcpy(m_name, name);
Print();
}
void Employee::Print() { // Print
cout << "ID: " << m_ID << ",Name:” << m_name
<< " ,Address(pointer):0x" << hex << (int) m_name<< endl;
}
Employee::~Employee() { // Dtor
cout << "Destructor called"<<endl;
Print();
delete [] m_name;
m_name=NULL;
}
void MyFunc(Employee emp) {
cout << "in MyFunc \n ";
}
int main()
{
Employee One(1,"Eli Rachamim");
// calling copy constructor
MyFunc(One);
cout<< "In the end of main \n“;
// Here the program crashes!
return 0;
}
If you d-tor is like
~Employee(){ delete[] name; }
and you alloc memory for your char* pointer, and you have no copy c-tor, than copy c-tor generated by compiler, that do memberwise-copy, will be called when you copy object. So, there will be double-free, that in most cases give you memory dump (in real calling destructor to already destructed object is UB and calling delete[] on already deleted object is also UB). But if you don't work with memory - copy c-tor, generated by compiler works well.
EDIT.
So, your second example demonstrates call of d-tor to allready destructed object and also double-free.
Why do you think it should crash?
C++ has the unfortunate feature of supplying an automatically-generated copy-constructor if you don't provide one, and your MyFunc() doesn't really do anything that would get screwed by that auto-generated copy.