Question

If *get_ii() returned heap memory, rather than stack memory, would this problem be eliminated?

01 int *get_ii()  
02 {  
03    int ii;        // Local stack variable  
04    ii = 2;  
05    return ⅈ  
06 }  
07 main()  
08 {  
09   int *ii;  
10   ii = get_ii();  // After this call the stack is given up by the routine   
11                   // get_ii() and its values are no longer safe.  
12    
13   ... Do stuff  
14   ..  ii may be corrupt by this point.  
15 }  

Source – http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/C++MemoryCorruptionAndMemoryLeaks.html

thanks

Answer 1

Yes. Allocating from the heap would work here. Make sure that somewhere you release it again otherwise you’ll leak memory.

Often smart-pointers help with this kind of “don’t forget” logic.