CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++c++14
Aseem Sharan
Aseem Sharan

Reputation: 57

Destructor gets called when I call a simple function

I made a simple program making a class and it's 3 objects. I overloaded =, +=, and << operators. The problem is that when i use = and += operators, the destructors get called after the execution of the function.

As far as I know, destructors are called when an object goes out of scope or when the 'delete' operator is used. But, in my case, it's none of the two. I looked into some other websites, like the oficial C++ website, but, I couldn't get the answer. Here's the code that I wrote.

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

class Class
{
    int flag,name;
public:
    Class(int y,int z)
{
    flag=y;
    name=z;
}

    Class& operator=(Class);
    Class operator+=(Class);
    friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&,Class&);    

    ~Class()
{
    cout<<"Destroying "<<flag<<endl;
}
};

int main()
{
    Class C1(1,80),C2(2,90),C3(3,100);
    cout<<C1<<C2<<C3<<endl;
    C1=C2=C3;
    cout<<C1<<C2<<C3<<endl;
    C3=C1+=C2;
    cout<<C1<<C2<<C3<<endl;
    return 0;
}

Class& Class::operator=(Class x)
{
    name=x.name;
    return *this;
}

Class Class::operator+=(Class x)
{
    name+=x.name;
    return *this;
}

ostream& operator<<(ostream& o,Class& c)
{
    o<<c.name;
    return o;
}

The output I'm getting is this:

8090100
Destroying 2
Destroying 3
100100100
Destroying 1
Destroying 2
200100200
Destroying 3
Destroying 2
Destroying 1

Destructors of C2,C3 and then C1,C2 are called in the process even when they're not out of scope. I tried this program by changing the function names and even changing the return type to 'void', but still, the destructors were called. I compiled this program in GCC-4.9.3.

I would appreciate any help on this topic, and do forgive me if my question is too silly.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 222

Answers (3)

dmi
dmi

Reputation: 1479

Please refer to Class& operator=(Class); and Class operator+=(Class); They take objects as parameters (not references). Thus, destroying those temp objects invokes the destructor.

Just noticed more comments above explaining this... :)

Upvotes: 0

TartanLlama
TartanLlama

Reputation: 65620

Your operators take the argument by value, making a copy which will be destructed when the function ends.

If you don't want to create a copy, take the argument by const reference. As interjay pointed out, operator+= should also return a reference rather than copying *this:

Class& operator=(const Class&);
Class& operator+=(const Class&);

Upvotes: 10

legends2k
legends2k

Reputation: 32904

Class& Class::operator=(Class x);

C1=C2=C3;

When you do C2 = C3 notice that the operator= takes the right hand side by value, so a copy of C3 gets created (x); its data is copied to C2's. When the function operator= returns, the parameter x goes out of scope and destroyed. This happens twice: once for C2=C3 and once for C1=C2, so you see both. This also explains the behaviour of operator+=.

If you want to avoid that take x by reference, as shown in Tartan's answer.

Upvotes: 3

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