Reusing a pointer

[ResidentBiscuit]

Let's say we have this situation:

int* arr = new int[n];
//Do some stuff that alters arr
//Now I want a fresh array to work with
delete [] arr;
arr = new int[n];

Is this going to cause some unforeseen/unpredictable behavior?

[Ramses12]

It should be fine.

[ResidentBiscuit]

I wasn't sure. I've read similar things that say don't ever do anything with a pointer after deletion. So far from testing it all seems good, but I don't want it to blow up on me down the road.

[guestgulkan]

ResidentBiscuit wrote:

I've read similar things that say don't ever do anything with a pointer after deletion. So far from testing it all seems good, but I don't want it to blow up on me down the road.

You probably misread what those things said - they meant that the object(s) that the pointer was pointing at should not be used/read/messed/written to after thedelete function was called on the pointer - because when you call delete you are basically telling the system to call the destructutors for the objects and reclaim the memory that it so kindly lent us when we called new.

[ResidentBiscuit]

Ah that makes sense. So the pointer itself is just fine to keep using. Good good

[Ramses12]

You could treat a pointer on which a "delete" has been applied to practically the same as using an uninitialized pointer. Meaning - it will start throwing problems if you try to use its location without initializing it first (with new, other memory allocation methods or by assigning it to something else). Other than that, no trouble.