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c++operator-overloadingdynamic-memory-allocation
danish sodhi
danish sodhi

Reputation: 1933

Understanding delete in C++ with

I have following code snippet from a C++ book I am reading.

int* operator=(const int& rhs, int *x)
{
   int *tmpx=x              //line 1
   x = new int(2)           //line 2 
   delete tmpx;             //line 3
   return x;                //line 4                   
}

My doubt is that If I am deleting tmpx on line 3 which holds the address to memory location that x points to, and deleting will invalidate the memory address, So wouldn't it be wrong to return x which is pointing to memory address that was freed at line 3 ?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 131

Answers (1)

Blaze
Blaze

Reputation: 16876

No, it's right. Because here you're assigning a new value to x.

x= new int(2);           //line 2

So now tmpx and x point to different places. tmpx points to the old x.

delete tmpx;             //line 3

Here you're deleting tmpx, which doesn't affect x, which is now pointing to the new position.

return x;                //line 4

You're returning the address of x that was returned by new in this function.

Upvotes: 7

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