Question

I’d need a class like std::auto_ptr for an array of unsigned char*, allocated with new[]. But auto_ptr only calls delete and not delete[], so i can’t use it.

I also need to have a function which creates and returns the array. I came out with my own implementation within a class ArrayDeleter, which i use like in this example:

#include <Utils/ArrayDeleter.hxx>

typedef Utils::ArrayDeleter<unsigned char> Bytes;

void f()
{
  // Create array with new
  unsigned char* xBytes = new unsigned char[10];
  // pass array to constructor of ArrayDeleter and
  // wrap it into auto_ptr
  return std::auto_ptr<Bytes>(new Bytes(xBytes));
}

...
// usage of return value
{
  auto_ptr<Bytes> xBytes(f());
}// unsigned char* is destroyed with delete[] in destructor of ArrayDeleter

Is there a more elegant way to solve this? (Even using another “popular” library)

Answer 1

Boost has a variety of auto-pointers, including ones for arrays. Have you considered if std::vector is sufficient? Vectors are guaranteed to be contiguous in memory, and if you know the size and allocate memory ahead of time via reserve() or resize(), the location in memory will not change.