C++ destructor with return

Question

In C++ if we define a class destructor as:

~Foo(){    return; } 

upon calling this destructor will the object of Foo be destroyed or does explicitly returning from the destructor mean that we don't ever want to destroy it.

I want to make it so that a certain object is destroyed only through another objects destructor i.e. only when the other object is ready to be destroyed.

Example:

class Class1{ ... Class2* myClass2; ... };  Class1::~Class1(){     myClass2->status = FINISHED;     delete myClass2; }  Class2::~Class2(){     if (status != FINISHED) return; } 

I searched online and couldn't seem to find an answer to my question. I've also tried figuring it out myself by going through some code step by step with a debugger but can't get a conclusive result.

Answer 1

No, you can't prevent the object from being destroyed by return statement, it just means the execution of the dtor's body will end at that point. After that it still will be destroyed (including its members and bases), and the memory still will be deallocated.

You migth throw exception.

Class2::~Class2() noexcept(false) {     if (status != FINISHED) throw some_exception(); }  Class1::~Class1() {     myClass2->status = FINISHED;     try {         delete myClass2;     } catch (some_exception& e) {         // what should we do now?     } } 

Note it's a terrible idea indeed. You'd better to reconsider the design, I'm sure there must be a better one. Throwing exception won't stop the destruction of its bases and members, just make it possible to get the process result of Class2's dtor. And what could be done with it is still not clear.