The free store

Basic facilities - slide 34 : 46

The free store

The C++ operators new and delete are used instead of the <cstdlib> functions malloc / calloc and free

new
- Application: new T, where T is a type
- Returns a pointer to the new object
- The object allocated by new lives until it is deallocated with delete
- new returns a pointer to uninizialized memory
delete
- Application: delete pT where pT is a pointer returned by new
- A variant delete[] pT must be used if pT is a pointer to an array allocated by new

Illustration of free store.

"A C++ implementation does not guarantee the prescence of a 'garbage collector'" [Stoustrup page 128]