Is this a memory leak?

Question

char *pointer1;
char *pointer2;

pointer1 = new char[256];
pointer2 = pointer1;

delete [] pointer1;

In other words, do I have to do delete [] pointer2 as well?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Nope, that code is fine and won't leak memory.

You only have to use delete[] once because you've only used one new to allocate an area for memory, even though there are two pointers to that same memory.

Answer 2

A simple rule: you need as many deletes as there are news. Even better, use something like a smart pointer or a container to take care of it for you.

And another minor point: pointer2 is becoming a "dangling pointer" once you call delete on pointer1.