Heap pinter c++
- Start by declaring a variable of type pointer. For example, you can declare a pointer to an integer as follows:
int* ptr;
This creates a pointer variable named ptr
that can store the memory address of an integer.
- Allocate memory for the integer using the
new
keyword. For example, you can allocate memory for an integer and assign the address to the pointer variableptr
as follows:
ptr = new int;
This dynamically allocates memory for an integer and assigns the address of the allocated memory to the pointer variable ptr
.
- Assign a value to the memory location pointed to by the pointer variable. For example, you can assign the value 10 to the memory location pointed to by
ptr
as follows:
*ptr = 10;
The *
before ptr
is the dereference operator, which allows you to access the value stored at the memory location pointed to by ptr
.
- Use the value stored at the memory location pointed to by the pointer variable. For example, you can print the value stored at the memory location pointed to by
ptr
as follows:
cout << *ptr;
This will output the value 10
to the console.
- Release the allocated memory using the
delete
keyword. For example, you can release the memory allocated for the integer pointed to byptr
as follows:
delete ptr;
This frees the memory allocated for the integer and deallocates the memory.
- Set the pointer variable to
nullptr
to avoid accessing invalid memory. For example, you can setptr
tonullptr
as follows:
ptr = nullptr;
Setting a pointer variable to nullptr
is a good practice to avoid accessing invalid memory after the memory has been deallocated.
Note: It's important to remember that when using heap memory allocation, it is your responsibility to deallocate the memory using delete
to avoid memory leaks.