I am just starting out C++, so sorry if this is a dumb question. I have a class Braid whose members are vectors. I have not written an assignment operator. When I do a lot of assignments to an object of the type Braid, I run into memory issues :- 0 0xb7daff89 in _int_malloc () from /lib/libc.so.6 #1 0xb7db2583 in malloc () from /lib/libc.so.6 #2 0xb7f8ac59 in operator new(unsigned int) () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 #3 0x0804d05e in __gnu_cxx::new_allocator<int>::allocate (this=0xbf800204, __n=1) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.3/../../../../include/c++/4.4.3/ext/new_allocator.h:89 #4 0x0804cb0e in std::_Vector_base<int, std::allocator<int> >::_M_allocate (this=0xbf800204, __n=1) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.3/../../../../include/c++/4.4.3/bits/stl_vector.h:140 #5 0x0804c086 in _Vector_base (this=0xbf800204, __n=1, __a=...) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.3/../../../../include/c++/4.4.3/bits/stl_vector.h:113 #6 0x0804b4b7 in vector (this=0xbf800204, __x=...) at /usr/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.4.3/../../../../include/c++/4.4.3/bits/stl_vector.h:242 #7 0x0804b234 in Braid (this=0xbf800204) at braid.h:13 #8 0x080495ed in Braid::cycleBraid (this=0xbf8001b4) at braid.cpp:191 #9 0x080497c6 in Braid::score (this=0xbf800298, b=...) at braid.cpp:251 #10 0x08049c46 in Braid::evaluateMove (this=0xbf800468, move=1, pos=0, depth=2, b=...) I suspect that these memory issues are because the vectors are getting resized. What I want to know is whether objects of type Braid automatically expand when its members expand? he code I am writing is really long so I will post the section which is causing the problems. Here is the relevant section of the code :- class Braid { private : vector<int> braid; //Stores the braid. int strands; vector < vector<bool> > history; vector < vector<bool> > CM; public : Braid () : strands(0) {} Braid operator * (Braid); Braid* inputBraid(int,vector<int>); int printBraid(); int printBraid(vector<vector<int>::iterator>); vector<int>::size_type size() const; ..... ..... } Here is the function which causes the issue :- int Braid::evaluateMove(int move,int pos,int depth,Braid b) { int netscore = 0; Braid curr(*this); curr = curr.move(move,pos); netscore += curr.score(b); while(depth > 1) { netscore += curr.evaluateMove(1,0,depth,b); netscore += curr.evaluateMove(2,0,depth,b); for(int i = 0; i < braid.size();++i) { netscore += curr.evaluateMove(3,i,depth,b); netscore += curr.evaluateMove(4,i,depth,b); netscore += curr.evaluateMove(5,i,depth,b); curr = curr.cycleBraid(); netscore += curr.evaluateMove(6,0,depth,b); } --depth; } return netscore; }