Question

MySinglyLinkedList.h:

#include <iostream>

template<class T> class LinkedList;

template<class T>
class LinkedNode {   
 public:
  LinkedNode(T new_data):data(new_data) {; }

 private:
  friend class LinkedList<T>; 
  LinkedNode<T> *next;
  T data;
};

template<class T>
class LinkedList {   
 public:
  LinkedList();
  ~LinkedList();
  void PushNode(T new_data);
  void Delete(LinkedNode<T> *pnode);
  void Show();

 private:
  LinkedNode<T> *head; //Head pointer
  LinkedNode<T> *tail; //Tail pointer
  int length;          //Length of the list
};

//Initialize an empty list when creating it
template<class T>
LinkedList<T>::LinkedList()
{
  head = tail = NULL;
  length = 0;
}

//delete all the nodes when deconstructing the object
template<class T>
LinkedList<T>::~LinkedList()
{
  LinkedNode<T> *ptr = head;
  while (ptr)
  {
    LinkedNode<T> *ptr_del = ptr;
    ptr = ptr->next;
    Delete(ptr_del);
  }
}

//Add one node to the tail of the list
template<class T>
void LinkedList<T>::PushNode(T new_data)
{
  LinkedNode<T> *pnew_node = new LinkedNode<T>(new_data);
  pnew_node->next = NULL;
  if (!length) {
    head = tail = pnew_node;
    length++;
  } else {
    tail->next = pnew_node;
    tail = pnew_node;
    length++;
  }
}

//Delete the node pointed by pnode
template<class T>
void LinkedList<T>::Delete(LinkedNode<T> *pnode)
{
  LinkedNode<T> *ptr = head;
  if (pnode==head) {
    head = pnode->next;
  } else {
    while(ptr->next != pnode)
    {
      ptr = ptr->next;
    }    
    ptr->next = pnode->next;
  }
  if(pnode == tail)
     tail = ptr;

  delete pnode;
  length--;
}

template<class T>
void LinkedList<T>::Show()   //Print all the contents in the list
{
  LinkedNode<T> *pnode = head;
  while(pnode)
  {
    std::cout << pnode->data << std::endl;
    pnode = pnode->next;
  }
  std::cout << "In total: " << length << std::endl;  
}

The main function is as follows:

#include "MySinglyLinkedList.h"
#include <cstdlib>
#include <ctime>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  //list_len is the length of the list
  int list_len = 5;
  srand(time(0));
  if (argc > 1)
    list_len = atoi(argv[1]);

  LinkedList<int> test_list;   //Create the first list: test_list

  for (int i = 0; i < list_len; i++)
  {
    //The elements in the list are random integers
    int cur_data = rand()%list_len;      
    test_list.PushNode(cur_data);
  }
  test_list.Show();

  LinkedList<int> test2 = test_list;  //Create the second list: test2
  test2.Show();

  return 0;
}

Since I didn’t define any copy constructor here, the default copy constructor will be called and do the bit copy when creating the second list, and as a result test_list and test2 will point to the same linked list. Therefore the first node of the list will be deleted twice when the two object are deconstructed. But the fact is nothing wrong happened when I compiled the program using GCC, and it ran successfully in Linux. I don’t understand why no error occurred.

Answer 1

Deleting a pointer that has already been deleted causes undefined behavior, so anything can happen. If you want to make sure nothing happens, set the pointer to null after deletion. Deleting null does nothing, and it won’t cause an error.

See: c++ delete (wikipedia)