I faced a very interesting problem in a C++ code. The code logic was as follows:

#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{

int *p = new int();
int* B[10];

for ( int i =0; i<10; i++)
{
delete p;
//p = NULL;
printf(“Address1 =  %x\n”, p);

int *q = new int();
printf(“Address2 =  %x\n”, q);

B[i] = q;

i++;
}

}

Output:

kanaujia@ubuntu:~/Desktop/ToKeep/cprogs$ ./a.out
Address1 =  96f8008
Address2 =  96f8008
Address1 =  96f8008
Address2 =  96f8008
Address1 =  96f8008
Address2 =  96f8008
Address1 =  96f8008
Address2 =  96f8008
Address1 =  96f8008
Address2 =  96f8008

This code looks pretty simple and with no bug, right? But, it has an interesting problem. The first memory allocation of integer will give us an address from the heap (say, it is 0x12345).

Now inside the loop, with first iteration, we free this memory. ‘new’ will mark this address 0x12345 in free-list. Next , we again ask an integer memory allocation. And ‘new’ returned me same address 0x12345 for this allocation. I save this address in array B. Next and henceforth forth iterations will call ‘delete’ on 0x12345, and again ask an allocation. This request again returns 0x12345. So, we end up with single value of 0x12345 for *all* elements of arrayB.

How to fix this:

Always mark the pointer to NULL after calling ‘delete’. Just mark p as NULL here.

9         for ( int i =0; i<10; i++)
10         {
11                 delete p;
12                 p = NULL;
13                 printf(“Address1 =  %x\n”, p);
14
15                 int *q = new int();
16                 printf(“Address2 =  %x\n”, q);
17
18                 B[i] = q;
19
20                 i++;
21         }

Output:

kanaujia@ubuntu:~/Desktop/ToKeep/cprogs$ ./a.out
Address1 =  0
Address2 =  9265008
Address1 =  0
Address2 =  9265018
Address1 =  0
Address2 =  9265028
Address1 =  0
Address2 =  9265038
Address1 =  0
Address2 =  9265048

That’s it folks! Hope you enjoyed it.