How to delete raw pointers from a unique_ptr - c++

Question

I'm writing a game framework, I have a vector<unique_ptr<Object>> list and I distribute pointers from that list by calling object.get() and sending that out. Before that I send out references instead of raw pointers but that resulted in other weird problem so I was told this is better. However when I remove a unique_ptr<Object>from the list, the raw pointers remains. I also can't deallocate them manually, I get an exception saying the pointer is not allocated.
So my question would be:
How do I delete raw pointers from removed unique_ptr's?
and is also a more general question:
Am I on the right track structure wise of passing pointers instead of references?
PxlObject* PxlFramework::AddObject(PxlObject* obj)
{
std::unique_ptr<PxlObject> u_ptr(obj);
objects_iterator = objects.insert(objects.end(), std::move(u_ptr));
return obj;
}
void PxlFramework::DeleteObject(PxlObject* obj) {
for(objects_iterator = objects.begin(); objects_iterator != objects.end(); ++objects_iterator)
{
if((*objects_iterator)->get_id() == obj->get_id())
{
//attempting to delete the raw pointer here but it will result in an error
delete obj;
//removing the unique_ptr<PxlObject> from the list here
std::swap((*objects_iterator), objects.back());
objects.pop_back();
break;
}
}
}

Answer 1

The whole point of std::unique_ptr is that it "owns" the object and it manages deletion automatically when the unique_ptr is destroyed. As such, you should not delete either a unique_ptr nor anything that a unique_ptr owns. To avoid this confusion, references are more common. Additionally, you have the oddity that your AddObject returns a pointer to a PxlObject that is not the one just added.
Something like this might be a little cleaner:
template<class Us...>
PxlObject& PxlFramework::AddObject(Us&&... obj)
{
std::unique_ptr<PxlObject> u_ptr(new PxlObject(std::forward<Us>(obj)...));
objects_iterator = objects.insert(objects.end(), std::move(u_ptr));
return **objects_iterator;
}
void PxlFramework::DeleteObject(PxlObject& obj) {
auto finder = [](std::unique_ptr<PxlObject>& p)->bool
{return obj.get_id()==p->get_id();};
auto it = find_if(objects.begin(), objects,end(), finder);
if (it != objects.end())
objects.erase(it);
else
throw ...;
}

Answer 2

You don't need delete the raw pointer directly you can use vector.erase instead. Here you have a simple example:
#include <iostream>
#include <algorithm>
#include <memory>
#include <vector>
using namespace std;
typedef vector<unique_ptr<int>> ptr_list_t;
void remove_number(int x, ptr_list_t& ptr_list)
{
for (ptr_list_t::iterator it = ptr_list.begin(); it != ptr_list.end(); ++it)
if (*(it->get()) == x) {
ptr_list.erase(it); // Use vector.erase for deleting objects from a vector.
// since it points to a unique_ptr, the object owned by it
// will be destroyed automatically.
break;
}
}
int main()
{
ptr_list_t ptr_list;
// Generating the pointer to numbers. 0 - 9
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
ptr_list.push_back(unique_ptr<int>(new int(i)));
// Remove the number 3.
remove_number(3, ptr_list);
// Printing the list. The number 3 will not appear.
for (ptr_list_t::iterator it = ptr_list.begin(); it != ptr_list.end(); ++it)
cout << *(it->get()) << endl;
return 0;
}
Other thing, I'm agreed with #MooingDuck: you should not delete either a unique_ptr nor anything that a unique_ptr owns. But you sure can. Take a look on unique_ptr.release. This function frees the ownership of the managed object.