C++ how to delete a structure?

Question

Structure I created:

   struct VideoSample   {        const unsigned char * buffer;       int len;   };     VideoSample * newVideoSample = new VideoSample;    newVideoSample->buffer = buf;    newVideoSample->len = size;         //... 

How now to delete it now?

Answer 1

delete newVideSample; 

This won't free any memory you allocated to newVideoSample->buffer though - you have to free it explicitly before deleting.

//Free newVideSample->buffer if it was allocated using malloc free((void*)(newVideSample->buffer));  //if it was created with new, use `delete` to free it delete newVideSample->buffer;  //Now you can safely delete without leaking any memory delete newVideSample; 

Normally this kind of freeing is written in the destructor of the class so that it'll be called automatically when you delete the dynamically created object.

Thanks @steve for mentioning it :)

Answer 2

delete newVideoSample; 

But if the new and delete are in the same context, you're probably better off skipping them and just creating it on the stack instead:

VideoSample newVideoSample = {buf, size}; 

In that case, no cleanup is necessary.