C++ Dynamic Allocation Mismatch: Is this problematic?
- by acanaday
I have been assigned to work on some legacy C++ code in MFC. One of the things I am finding all over the place are allocations like the following:
struct Point
{
float x,y,z;
};
...
void someFunc( void )
{
int numPoints = ...;
Point* pArray = (Point*)new BYTE[ numPoints * sizeof(Point) ];
...
//do some stuff with points
...
delete [] pArray;
}
I realize that this code is atrociously wrong on so many levels (C-style cast, using new like malloc, confusing, etc). I also realize that if Point had defined a constructor it would not be called and weird things would happen at delete [] if a destructor had been defined.
Question: I am in the process of fixing these occurrences wherever they appear as a matter of course. However, I have never seen anything like this before and it has got me wondering. Does this code have the potential to cause memory leaks/corruption as it stands currently (no constructor/destructor, but with pointer type mismatch) or is it safe as long as the array just contains structs/primitive types?
