Question

For a project I have to implement a bitset class. My code thus far is:

Header File

#ifndef BITSET_H_
#define BITSET_H_
#include <string>
#include <cmath>

using namespace std;

// Container class to hold and manipulate bitsets
class Bitset {
public:
    Bitset();
    Bitset(const string);
    ~Bitset();

    // Returns the size of the bitset
    int size();

    // Sets a bitset equal to the specified value
    void operator= (const string);

    // Accesses a specific bit from the bitset
    bool operator[] (const int) const;

private:
    unsigned char *bitset;
    int set_size;
    // Sets a bitset equal to the specified value
    void assign(const string);
};
#endif /* BITSET_H_ */

Source File

#include "bitset.h"

Bitset::Bitset() {
    bitset = NULL;
}

Bitset::Bitset(const string value) {
    bitset = NULL;
    assign(value);
}

Bitset::~Bitset() {
    if (bitset != NULL) {
        delete[] bitset;
    }
}

int Bitset::size() {
    return set_size;
}

void Bitset::operator= (const string value) {
    assign(value);
}

bool Bitset::operator[] (const int index) const {
    int offset;

    if (index >= set_size) {
        return false;
    }

    offset = (int) index/sizeof(unsigned char);
    return (bitset[offset] >> (index - offset*sizeof(unsigned char))) & 1;
}

void Bitset::assign(const string value) {
    int i, offset;

    if (bitset != NULL) {
        delete[] bitset;
    }

    bitset = new unsigned char[(int) ceil(value.length()/sizeof(unsigned char))];

    for (i = 0; i < value.length(); i++) {
        offset = (int) i/sizeof(unsigned char);
        if (value[i] == '1') {
            bitset[offset] |= (1 << (i - offset*sizeof(unsigned char)));
        } else {
            bitset[offset] &= ~(1 << (i - offset*sizeof(unsigned char)));
        }
    }

    set_size = value.length();
}

My problem is my delete statements in both the deconstructor and assign method core dump. Is it not necessary to deallocate this memory? From what I’ve read so far it’s always necessary to use the delete command whenever you call new.

EDIT: I’ve changed the code above to reflect one of the fixes. I added bitset = NULL in the constructor. This fixed the core dump in the assign method however I’m still getting errors in the deconstructor.

Answer 1

I think you should initialize bitset to NULL in your second constructor.

Why?

Because a pointer variable won’t necessarily be initialized to NULL. So you may be trying to delete[] some random memory address when you use that second constructor.

So you should have:

Bitset::Bitset(const string value) : bitset(NULL)
{
    assign(value);
}