Can a destructor call a non-const function on a const object?

Question

I searched for the answer to this question and wasn't able to find one. Consider the following code:

struct Foo
{
    int *bar;
    Foo(int barValue) : bar(new int(barValue)) {}
    ~Foo() { do_this(); }
    void do_this() { delete bar; bar = nullptr; }
};

int main()
{
    const Foo foo(7);
}

do_this() cannot be called on a const object, so I couldn't do something like foo.do_this(). It would also make sense in some situations to call do_this() outside of the destructor, which is why I don't want to simply include the code in the destructor definition. Because do_this() modifies a member variable, I can't declare it as const.

My question is: will the destructor be able to call do_this() on a const object when the object is destroyed?

I tried it and received no errors, but I want to make sure I'm not causing a memory leak once my program terminates.

Answer 1

Yes, you can certainly and safely call non-const functions from destructor. Standard explicitly allows this:

15.4/2 A destructor is used to destroy objects of its class type. The address of a destructor shall not be taken. A destructor can be invoked for a const, volatile or const volatile object. const and volatile semantics ([dcl.type.cv]) are not applied on an object under destruction. They stop being in effect when the destructor for the most derived object starts.