For example:
QFile* file = new QFile...
If there is no delete file is it memory leak? I ask because I'm new in Qt and reviewing some code I've found this so I wonder if that is sane for Qt classes or not?
Using QFile, there are usually no reason to make it dynamic, but yes -> delete should be here, or else it will leak.
in Qt there are only one exception from mandatory rule "for each new there should be delete".
If you are creating widget with parent like this:
QWidget* w = new QWidget();
QWidget* w2 = new QWidget(w);
Once you you delete w - all it's children (w2 in our case) also will be deleted. This shortens code, but this is only an exception. Rest of stuff - should be deleted.
Edited: Of course, you can use QScopedPointer, or usual std::unique_ptr.
The rule is simple. If QObject has a parent then it will be deleted by parent. If not, you should delete it yourself.
Related
I am new with Qt and i am very confused about how widgets are deleted. I was reading a video and i wanted to show up a QProgressbar while the video frames are being read and then remove this QProgressbar when the video is loaded.
I have done it with 2 different ways:
Using Pointers
QWidget* wd = new QWidget();
QProgressBar* pB = new QProgressBar(wd);
QLabel* label = new QLabel(wd);
//setting geometry and updating the label and progressbar
wd->deleteLater();
wd->hide();
this code is written inside a class and i was assuming when the destructor of this class is called, the widget will be deleted with all of it's children but that didn't happen and everytime i run this function again a new widget is created without hiding or deleting the previous one (NOTE: i have tried to delete the label and progressbar from the widget assuming that they will disappear from inside the widget but this didn't happen "delete(pB);")
Using Objects
QWidget wd;
QProgressBar pB(&wd);
QLabel label(wd);
//setting geometry and updating the label and progressbar
wd.deleteLater();
wd.hide();
When i have run the same code but using objects instead of pointers , it has run exactly as i have wanted and everytime i run the function, the old widget is destroyed and a new one is created.
NOTE: -Also when i close the main window, in case of pointers, the widget wd still exists and the program doesn't terminate until i close them manually
- In case of Objects, when i close the main window everything is closed and the program is terminated correctly.
I need someone to explain me why is this happening and how if i am having a vector of pointers to widgets to delete all pointers inside that vector without any memory leakage
In typical C++ the rule would be "write one delete for every new". An even more advanced rule would be "probably don't write new or delete and bury that in the RIAA pattern instead". Qt changes the rule in this regard because it introduces its own memory management paradigm. It's based on parent/child relationships. QWidgets that are newed can be given a parentWidget(). When the parentWidget() is destroyed, all of its children will be destroyed. Hence, in Qt it is common practice to allocate objects on the stack with new, give them a parent, and never delete the memory yourself. The rules get more complicated with QLayout and such becomes sometimes Qt objects take ownership of widgets and sometimes they don't.
In your case, you probably don't need the deleteLater call. That posts a message to Qt's internal event loop. The message says, "Delete me when you get a chance!" If you want the class to manage wd just give it a parent of this. Then the whole parent/child tree will get deleted when your class is deleted.
It's all really simple. QObject-derived classes are just like any other C++ class, with one exception: if a QObject has children, it will delete the children in its destructor. Keep in mind that QWidget is-a QObject. If you have an instance allocated usingnew`, you must delete it, or ensure that something (a smart pointer!) does.
Of course, attempting to delete something you didn't dynamically allocate is an error, thus:
If you don't dynamically allocate a QObject, don't deleteLater or delete it.
If you don't dynamically allocate a QObject's children, make sure they are gone before the object gets destructed.
Also, don't hide widgets you're about to destruct. It's pointless.
To manage widget lifetime yourself, you should use smart pointers:
class MyClass {
QScopedPointer<QWidget> m_widget;
public:
MyClass() :
widget{new QWidget};
{
auto wd = m_widget->data();
auto pb = new QProgressBar{wd};
auto label = new QLabel{wd};
}
};
When you destroy MyClass, the scoped pointer's destructor will delete the widget instance, and its QObject::~QObject destructor will delete its children.
Of course, none of this is necessary: you should simply create the objects as direct members of the class:
class MyClass {
// The order of declaration has meaning! Parents must precede children.
QWidget m_widget;
QProgressBar m_bar{&m_widget};
QLabel m_label{&m_widget};
public:
MyClass() {}
};
Normally you'd be using a layout for the child widgets:
class MyClass {
QWidget m_widget;
QVBoxLayout m_layout{&m_widget};
QProgressBar m_bar;
QLabel m_label;
public:
MyClass() {
m_layout.addWidget(&m_bar);
m_layout.addWidget(&m_label);
}
};
When you add widgets to the layout, it reparents them to the widget the layout has been set on.
The compiler-generated destructor looks as below. You can't write such code, since the compiler-generated code will double-destroy the already destroyed objects, but let's pretend you could.
MyClass::~MyClass() {
m_label.~QLabel();
m_bar.~QProgressBar();
m_layout.~QVBoxLayout();
// At this point m_widget has no children and its `~QObject()` destructor
// won't perform any child deletions.
m_widget.~QWidget();
}
I have a QComboBox_1 with items added (both icon and text). Then i added item to the QListWidget_1 as below from a QPushButton_1 clicked(). The QListWidget forcing to add a QListWidgetItem as a pointer value.
void MainWindow::on_QPushButton_1_clicked(){
int intSelected = ui->QComboBox_1->currentIndex();
QListWidgetItem *Itm = new QListWidgetItem(ui->QComboBox_1->itemIcon(intSelected), ui->QComboBox_1->itemText(intSelected));
ui->QListWidget_1->addItem(Itm);}
And it is working fine. But i didn't delete the pointer variable "*Itm" in any of the code (MainWindow unload or close). This will create memory leak?
I am a beginner to Qt and C++
Thanks in advance.
No it will not. Technically it's not entirely obvious from the manual, though one definitely can suppose that.
Additionally, in the source of QListWidget.cpp you can see that items are stored inside internal QListModel class which handles deletion of them automatically in its destructor and in other cases when they are removed.
I use this code:
MyDialog *md = new MyDialog();
md -> show();
to open a dialog window in Qt. Will md be deleted automatically when the dialog window is closed or do I need to run delete md when the window is finished?
In your little piece of code you need to delete it, because it doesn't have a parent, if you set a parent, the parent will delete it's children and you only need to delete the "main-window" (the window that doesn't have a parent).
Also for QWidget derived classes you can use the: Qt::WA_DeleteOnClose flag and then the memory will be deallocated when the widget closes, see the documentation here
Then code will become:
MyDialog *md = new MyDialog();
md->setAttribute(Qt::WA_DeleteOnClose);
md->show();
Yes. Unless you pass this while this is a QWidget or any other QWidget:
MyDialog *md = new MyDialog(this);
md->show();
you need to:
delete md;
at some point in order to release its memory. Also you need to make sure in this case that the object tree is well linked. What you can also do is call setAttribute(Qt::WA_DeleteOnClose); on md so that when you close the dialog, its memory will also be released as Zlatomir said. However if you need md to live after it was closed setAttribute(Qt::WA_DeleteOnClose); is not an option. This is also dangerous and could lead to access violation/segmentation fault if you are not careful.
Consider the following snippet code:
1: QPushButton *p_Button = new QPushButton(this);
2: QPushButton myButton(this);
Line 1: this is referred to QWidget, so p_Button is child of QWidget in my example: when QWidget dies (goes out the scope??) his destructor deletes p_Button from the heap and calls the destructor of p_Button.
Line 2: Same as Line 1, but does the destructor of QWidget delete myButton since its child is also myButton?
Please correct me if I stated something wrong and reply to my questions.
Yes and yes. If a QObject is not created by new, it must be destroyed before its parent. Otherwise, the parent will delete the child and the program may crash.
Qt has some good documentation on object trees and ownership that explains this.
What will happen if we will run delete widget for widget that is in layout? If this case was written in documentation, please give me the link (I didn't find).
Code example:
QLabel *l1 = new QLabel("1st");
QLabel *l2 = new QLabel("2nd");
QVBoxLayout *layout = new QVBoxLayout;
layout->addWidget(l1);
layout->addWidget(l2);
QWidget *mainWidget = new QWidget;
mainWidget->setLayout(layout);
mainWidget->show();
delete l1;
l2->deleteLater();
Can things that will happen be different for l1 and l2?
I believe what you are doing is almost same, though neither would properly remove from layout the way you should be doing it. They are still being left as bad references in the layout (if I remember correctly)
The first one simply deletes the item now. The second will delete it once the control returns back to the event loop. But really, the way people usually remove items from a layout is to take them from the layout (giving it a chance to adjust itself), then delete the item and its widget (if you want).
QLayoutItem *child;
while ((child = layout->takeAt(0)) != 0) {
delete child->widget();
delete child;
}
Again, the deleting of the widget (child->widget()) is only needed if you want to destroy the widget that was added, in addition to the layout item that was holding it.
QLayout's listen for events of type ChildRemoved and remove the items
accordingly. Simply deleting the widget is safe.
by #FrankOsterfeld here.
dont use delete l1 on Qobjects that has active slots connected to them, you will run into a crash.
Use:
l1->hide();
l1->deleteLater();
It works fine for me
Generally, I don't like to delete Qt widgets, rather remove them from the appropriate layout. (Qt will delete its own widgets if you set the Delete on close window attribute. ) The difference between calling delete and delete later is that delete is the normal C++ delete operation that will call the destructor and free the memory associated with the object.
The deleteLater() method, as discussed in the Qt documentation deletes the object when the event loop is entered.