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Revati S Misra

Revati S Misra

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Aryan Kumar

Aryan Kumar

16-Aug-2023

A memory leak in C++ occurs when a programmer allocates memory dynamically and never deallocates it. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as:

  • Forgetting to call the delete operator on a pointer.
  • Using a pointer that goes out of scope without being deleted.
  • Using a circular reference between objects.
  • Using a resource that is not managed by the garbage collector.

To avoid memory leaks in C++, it is important to be careful about how you allocate and deallocate memory. Here are some tips:

  • Use the new operator to allocate memory dynamically.
  • Use the delete operator to deallocate memory that you no longer need.
  • Use RAII (Resource Acquisition Is Initialization) to automatically deallocate resources when they go out of scope.
  • Use a memory leak detection tool to find and fix memory leaks in your code.

Here are some additional things to keep in mind to avoid memory leaks in C++:

  • Use smart pointers instead of raw pointers. Smart pointers automatically deallocate memory when they go out of scope.
  • Avoid using global variables. Global variables can easily lead to memory leaks.
  • Use the std::vector class instead of manually allocating and deallocating arrays. The std::vector class automatically resizes itself as needed, so you don't have to worry about memory leaks.
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