[c++] How does delete[] know it's an array?

I had a similar question to this. In C, you allocate memory with malloc() (or another similar function), and delete it with free(). There is only one malloc(), which simply allocates a certain number of bytes. There is only one free(), which simply takes a pointer as it's parameter.

So why is it that in C you can just hand over the pointer to free, but in C++ you must tell it whether it's an array or a single variable?

The answer, I've learned, has to do with class destructors.

If you allocate an instance of a class MyClass...

classes = new MyClass[3];

And delete it with delete, you may only get the destructor for the first instance of MyClass called. If you use delete[], you can be assured that the destructor will be called for all instances in the array.

THIS is the important difference. If you're simply working with standard types (e.g. int) you won't really see this issue. Plus, you should remember that behavior for using delete on new[] and delete[] on new is undefined--it may not work the same way on every compiler/system.

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