C++ how to delete a structure?

Question

Structure I created:

   struct VideoSample
  { 
      const unsigned char * buffer;
      int len;
  };

   VideoSample * newVideoSample = new VideoSample;
          


        

Answer 1

Use delete

VideoSample * newVideoSample = new VideoSample;
//.. stuffs

delete newVideoSample;

There is also an overload i.e delete[]

VideoSample * newVideoSample = new VideoSample[n];
//.. stuffs

delete [] newVideoSample;

---

In Modern C++ it is always recommended to use smart pointers. You may want to use boost::shared_ptr<T> from the boost library.

Answer 2

If you intended VideoSample to free its buffer member then VideoSample is a fragile class. It has no way of knowing whether buf was created in the heap using new[] or malloc, or is the address of a variable on the stack.

Answer 3

delete newVideSample;

This won't free any memory you allocated to newVideoSample->buffer though - you have to free it explicitly before deleting.

//Free newVideSample->buffer if it was allocated using malloc
free((void*)(newVideSample->buffer));

//if it was created with new, use `delete` to free it
delete newVideSample->buffer;

//Now you can safely delete without leaking any memory
delete newVideSample;

Normally this kind of freeing is written in the destructor of the class so that it'll be called automatically when you delete the dynamically created object.

Thanks @steve for mentioning it :)

Answer 4

Unless I'm missing something, you just use delete:

delete newVideoSample;

Answer 5

**You create object of Videosample , so you just use delete..

VideoSample * newVideoSample = new VideoSample; delete newVideoSample;**