CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++pointersvectordestructor
Leif Andersen
Leif Andersen

Reputation: 22342

Vector destructor causing program to crash in C++

I have a vector<vector<Person*>*>* called groups (yes, I know about shared_ptr, but I can't use them in this context), and another one called partialGroups

Anyway, at the end of the method I delete all of the inner vector's, but not the people themselves, because I still want them to be valid, so here is the end of the code:

// Deal with remaining partial teams
vector<Person*> *unsortable;
groups->push_back(unsortable);
// Remaining people
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < people.size(); i++) {
    unsortable->push_back(people[i]);
}
// Remaining partial groups
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < partialGroups.size();i++) {
    for(unsigned int j = 0; j < partialGroups[i]->size(); j++) {
        unsortable->push_back(partialGroups[i]->at(j));
    }
    delete partialGroups[i];
}

return groups;

I then call the method with this line of code:

vector<vector<Person*>*> *currentMatch = sort(*people);

I can run gdb all th way to the return groups; statement, and looking at the data structure, it is just fine. However, when I step out of the method, the program crashes, and the stack trace shows that it's crashing in the vector destructor itself.

What on earth could cause this? It shouldn't be a problem with the Person destructor as the inner vector is of pointers to people. Also, taking out the delete line does not make a difference. (Yes, I know it would leave a memory leak, but it might have helped to diagnose the problem).

Thank you.

edit: Also, the error is a sigabrt

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2059

Answers (1)

Dan Breslau
Dan Breslau

Reputation: 11522

If this code snippet is accurate, you're doing all kinds of things with an uninitialized pointer, unsortable. I'm surprised it gets as far as the exit from the method.

Upvotes: 6

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