BP-5-6 Dynamic Variable and Dynamic Array

5.3 Dynamic Variable

1. Creation

• new <type-name>
  

  Keyword new allocates room in the heap to a dynamic variable and return its address as a pointer, and if you want to use it later, you must use a pointer to store it.

• new <type-name> [integral-expression]...[integral-expression]
  

  The expression above create a dynamic array and return the address of its first element.

• #include <cstdlib>
  void* malloc(unsigned int size);
  

  Built-in function malloc allocated a room of input size in the heap and return its start address as a general pointer, which needs a explicit type reversion to your target type. Here are some examples.

  int *p1 = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int)); //create a int dynamic variable
  int *p2 = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int) * n); //create a int dynamic array with n rooms
  

2. Revoke

Usually, we use keyword delete to revoke dynamic variables created by keyword new and function free to revoke dynamic variables created by function malloc.

delete <pointer>;
//revoke the dynamic variable pointed by the pointer
delete []<pointer>;
//revoke the dynamic array pointed by the pointer
#include <cstdlib>
free(<pointer>);
//revoke the dynamic variable or array pointed by the pointer

Notice that if you want to revoke a dynamic array, the pointer must point to its first element.

When we have revoked a dynamic variable, the pointer is still there pointing to its room which is empty now. So the pointer has become a dangling pointer.

Moreover, if there’s a dynamic variable has not been revoked and the pointer previously pointing at it has pointed somewhere else or ended its lifetime, the dynamic variable here will become an orphan - no longer able to be accessed while continue to occupy the room, which is a waste of the memory. This phenomenon is called memory leak.

3. Application - Dynamic Array

Use dynamic array is a method to solve the problem that the regular array must be defined with fixed length.

//if we know the number of numbers
int n, *p;
cin >> n;
p = new int[n];
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) cin >> p[i];
sort(p, n);
delete []p;

//if end with a flag
int max_len = 20, count = 0, n; 
const int INCREMENT = 10;
int *p = new int[max_len];
cin >> n;
while (n != -1) {
    if (count >= max_len) {
        max_len += INCREMENT;
        int *q = new int[max_len];
        for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) q[i] = p[i];
        delete []p;
        p = q;
    }
    p[count] = n;
    count++;
    cin >> n;
}
sort(p, count);
delete []p;