Deny std::vector from deleting its data

Question

I have the following case:

T* get_somthing(){
    std::vector vec; //T is trivally-copyable
    //fill vec
    T* temp = new T[vec.size()];
    memc         


        

Answer 1

The first thing you should do is to get up, go to the one responsible for this design and (verbally in a professional manner) punch him/her in the face: It's a mess.

Then, there's a way in C++11 to have a std::vector with automatic storage duration and have it not call its destructor:

Put the std::vector into an union

Like so:

template
union Ugly {
  std::vector vec;
  Ugly() {
    new (&vec) std::vector(); // Construct
  }
  ~Ugly() {
   // Don't destruct
  }
};

T* get_something(){
  Ugly mess;
  //fill mess.vec
  return mess.vec.data();
}

I'm not 100% sure whether this still counts as valid C++11, but it should "work". Now excuse me, I need to wash my hands to get rid of the crying feeling of shame for this code ...

Oh, and one more thing: How do you intend to release the memory that the std::vector had allocated? You know, you can't (reliably) use the pointer returned by the member function data() for that!