Question

I have an array of CStrings as a member in my class:

...
private:
 CString mStrings[7];
...

Although the destructor of the class gets called correctly my analysis tool tells me that there is a memory leak in each of the seven mStrings (each time I allocate and deallocate my class).

I thought that CStrings manage their memory themselves. Does the fact that I have them in an array change anything here?

Answer 1

No, that shouldn’t be leaking. You don’t get any leaks unless you allocate with new or new[] (or malloc) and don’t free (with delete,delete[] or free) the memory.

In your case, the array is in automatic storage, so it automatically gets cleaned up. Also, CStrings automatically manage their memory. Either it’s a false positive, or there’s some other code causing the issue.

Edit – Although a CString doesn’t leak, a false positive might not be the case. Are you my any chance initializing as:

unsigned char* x = new unsigned char[10];
CString str(x);

and forgetting to delete[] x, or something similar?

Edit 2 – Maybe the error comes for un-deleted instances of your class:

struct X
{
private:
   CString mStrings[7];
};

//...
X* x = new X;