[comp.lang.c++] Question of new and realloc

teittinen@cc.helsinki.fi (01/24/91)

Can I use realloc() to handle pointers created by new-operator? Can this
cause any troubles? I'd like to use new-operator to minimize pointer
type casts and because it does arrays right without sizeof-calculations.
Why is there no resize-operator that would make the same thing as
realloc(), but would return the right pointer type? That way I could get
rid of some pointer type casts (void* -> MyType*).

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E-Mail: teittinen@finuh.bitnet               ! "Studying is the only way
        teittinen@cc.helsinki.fi             !  to do nothing without
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steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage) (01/26/91)

teittinen@cc.helsinki.fi (Marko Teittinen) writes:


>Can I use realloc() to handle pointers created by new-operator? Can this
>cause any troubles? I'd like to use new-operator to minimize pointer
>type casts and because it does arrays right without sizeof-calculations.
>Why is there no resize-operator that would make the same thing as
>realloc()...

One use of "new" is to allocate an array of simple objects.  Another
is to allocate space for an object with a constructor.  In the latter
case, what would be the semantics of a realloc operator?  It makes
no sense, given strong typing, to extend the size of a single class
object.  There are possible uses for a realloc operator, but the
semantics get a little muddy.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com