It says that if there is a virtual function, it is a good practice to have a virtual destructor. However, if the object is created on the stack but not on heap, do we still need to do that?
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It says that if there is a virtual function, it is a good practice to have a virtual destructor. However, if the object is created on the stack but not on heap, do we still need to do that?
Regards,
Strictly speaking no – the virtual destructor is only necessary if the object will be destroyed via a pointer to reference to a base object.
If the static type at destruction time is the actual type of the object, then the correct dtor will be called regardless of whether it’s virtual or not.
But if a class has virtual functions, the reason for that is generally so that it can be accessed through a pointer or reference to one of the objects bases. If the object is going to be destroyed through that mechanism, then having a virtual dtor will ensure the correct one is called. And if you have a virtual function, making the dtor virtual comes at next to no cost.