I'm looking for a method to dynamically create new class objects during runtime of a program. So far what I've read leads me to believe it's not easy and normally reserved for more advanced program requirements. What I've tried so far is this: // create a vector of type class vector<class_name> vect; // and use push_back (method 1) vect.push_back(*new Object); //or use for loop and [] operator (method 2) vect[i] = *new Object; neither of these throw errors from the compiler, but I'm using ifstream to read data from a file and dynamically create the objects... the file read is taking in some weird data and occasionally reading a memory address, and it's obvious to me it's due to my use/misuse of the code snippet above. The file read code is as follows: // in main ifstream fileIn fileIn.open( fileName.c_str() ); // passes to a separate function along w/ vector loadObjects (fileIn, vect); void loadObjects (ifstream& is, vector<class_name>& Object) { int data1, data2, data3; int count = 0; string line; if( is.good() ){ for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { is >> data1 >> data2 >> data3; if (data1 == 0) { vect.push_back(*new Object(data2, data3) ) } } } }