Say I declare a variable like this: int &Foo = *(new int); How do you ''delete'' that var? Gyzmo ============== "Moo-moo moo" - Hell Bovine (Diablo II)

Don''t u mean:-

int *MyPointer = new int;

then delete(MyPointer);

No i was wondering how you delete a reference to a dynamically created object

Gyzmo
==============================
He who codes all night and codes all day
Lives to get a lousy paycheck someday....

delete &Foo

i think that will work (cant test it right now tho )

Thanks, I think it works (no errors compiling )

EDIT: Or running

Gyzmo
==============================
He who codes all night and codes all day
Lives to get a lousy paycheck someday....

Edited by - Gyzmo on August 6, 2000 5:27:36 PM

geez, this is a quick thread lotsa replies in like half an hour.

Are you using this kind of thing, or just asking? A better way would be to just use a pointer in the first place. If you need the reference for anything specific you can create one from the pointer. Just because it works doesn''t mean you should use it. If you do use a pointer you can wrap it inside an auto_ptr so you can''t forget to delete it (and it''ll keep it safe if you decided to use exceptions) e.g.

    std::auto_ptr<int> pFoo(new int);int& Foo = *pFoo.get();//no need to explicitly delete anything    

I was just wondering, I have NEVER used references and it is unlikely I ever will, but I just can''t stand not knowing. It just sort of popped into my mind and I just had to ask



Gyzmo
==============================
He who codes all night and codes all day
Lives to get a lousy paycheck someday....

You cannot delete a reference to an object

The following:
delete &Foo

means call ''delete'' on the pointer to Foo

&Foo is a form of the address of operator, not a reference.

The most common use of references is passing arguments to functions/methods where you do not want to construct a temporary.

It is like passing a pointer in effeciency, but a C++ reference can never be NULL so it is safer.

classic example

class Foo
{
Foo& operator=(const Foo& rhs);
};

Why a const reference? - Because you do not want to allow modification of rhs.
Why does it return Foo& - so you can chain assignments

example:

Foo a, b, c;

a = b = c;

Just like you can do with an int or long or any builtin type.

Also, typically you would initialize a reference to a stack object or as a function parameter( as described above ) and would not usually initialize it to something that has been allocated on the heap