Question

This question might be silly, but I want to know, if a copy constructor is invoked when a pointer to an object is returned by a function?
Also,consider following:

A* a1 = new A(); 
A* a = a1.GetPointer();

A* GetPoineter()
{

.....
return new A();
}

so does

A* a = a1.GetPointer(); 

call copy constructor?

also if I delete a, will it delete the address pointed by a1 also?

Answer 1

No, it does not call the copy constructor since you are returning the address of the object, not the object itself.

delete a; will only delete the object allocated in the GetPoineter function. a1 is untouched since it points to a completely different object.