Do you know what Memory Leaks are in the C++ programming language? Have you ever thought about the process to deal with Memory Leaks in C & C++ programming languages? Let us try to find out the process to avoid such mistakes while writing the program.
But before we start writing about the memory leaks in the C++ programming language, we need to know about it & its background.
What Are Memory Leaks In C++? Read Below
The memory leak issue is associated with the Dynamic Memory Allocation process. Memory leaks are almost always caused by mismanagement of pointers; to avoid this, you must have a solid mastery of pointers in C++ and their lifecycles.
In that process, programmers manually allocate some memory inside the compiler. And those spaces remain the same after ending & closing the editor application as well.
In this way, many such waste blocks are stored one by one inside the memory. At last, any new program would be unable to execute as there is no space available. Such an issue is known as the Memory Leak issue. After declaring any smart pointer, deallocate the memory for future.
What Are The Disadvantage Of Memory Leaks In C++?
Now, after having a brief knowledge of the memory leaks in C++, we need to find out some of its important disadvantages. Let us try to find out the following disadvantages of memory leaks in C++:
- The memory leaks in CPP will cause a shortage of memory in the computer. While compiling a program, you might find such errors where the problem is related to the memory.
- Sometimes, the program refuses to open in the compiler if there are memory leaks in the C++ programming language. Sometimes, the program refuses to open in the compiler if there are memory leaks in the C++ programming language. In such cases, exception handling in C++ can be used to gracefully catch memory allocation failures and prevent unexpected crashes. The very first time, it will open without any issues, but if there are memory leaks in that program, it might deny opening the program.
- While running the program, you might come across a situation where the program crashes. It happens when all the remaining memory space in the computer is used by the memory.
What Is The Method To Detect Memory Leaks In C++? Get To Know
There is no special method present that will help to detect memory leaks in the C++ programming language. It is not an issue that is occurring due to a mechanical problem. Programmers forget to deallocate the memory that was allocated using dynamic memory allocation.
But below, we have defined one example that will help you to clarify the concept of how memory leakage has been done in C++ programs.
Example:
#include <bits/stdc++.h> using namespace std; void func(){ // User Defined Function To Identify Memory leak float* zap = new float(3.4); // Allocating Memory To The Float Pointer cout << "There Are Memory Leak";} // Printing Any Statement int main(){ func();return 0;} // Calling The User Defined Function
Steps Of The Program:
1. In the user-defined function, one float pointer is declared. And for occupying the space, some values
are also provided there.
2. Now, the memory block will be created. We will print one statement to understand that.
3. We will close the function by deallocating the memory. And the user-defined function will be
called.
Let us try to find out the output of the above code. It will help to understand the process of memory leaks in the C++ programming language.
Output:
The above output clearly shows that the statement is printed successfully. So, the previous statement was also encountered.
As a result, inside the memory block, one false space is allocated, which does nothing as smart pointers are not deallocated. So, it causes memory leakage.
“Finding the exact source of a leak in thousands of lines of code is tedious; if your project keeps crashing, our experts can audit your C++ code for memory safety.“
What Are The Tips To Avoid Memory Leaks In C++?
Now, as we have understood the total process of memory leaks in the C++ programming language, it is time to get some tips to avoid memory leaks in the C++ programming language.
Let us try to find out the tips that will help to remove memory leaks in the C++ programming language.
- Programmers need to use the smart pointer whenever there is a provision for it. Programmers need to reduce the work for memory management on their own. It will help a lot.
- Programmers need to use the std::string class more often whenever there is a need to handle character elements. Programmers need to reduce the use of the char* pointer operations.
- The std::string class can be able to handle all the memory management on its own.
- Users can able to use the raw or new pointer whenever they are referring to any other old library of the C++ programming language.
- Programmers need to be very careful while doing such operations. You need to pay full attention to the code which you are writing with the help of the dynamic memory allocation process.
How To Deallocate Memory Leakage In C++?
There is a simple method present in the C++ programs, which is to use the ‘delete’ keyword. If you are
familiar with the ‘free’ keyword inside the C programs, you will get it easily. Any smart pointers declared with the help of the ‘new’ keyword can be removed by ‘delete’.
The ‘delete’ is the built-in function present to do such tasks. Along with manual memory management, C++ provides various built-in utilities to handle memory efficiently, which you can explore in the C++ Standard Library. Here, the name of the pointer will be shared as the argument to the function. Hence, the memory leaks in the C++ programming language will be removed now.
General Syntax: delete(pointer-name);
Program To Demonstrate The Delete Keyword:
#include <bits/stdc++.h> using namespace std; void func() // User Defined Function To Identify Memory leak { float* zap = new float(3.4); // Allocating Memory To The Float Pointer cout << "There Are Memory Leak"<<endl; // Printing Any Statement delete(zap); // Delete Function To Remove Memory cout << "Memory Leak Removed"; // Printing Any Statement } // Function Closed With Deallocation int main() // Main Function { func(); // Calling The User Defined Function return 0;}
Steps Of The Program:
1. At first, one user-defined function is implemented to show the memory leakage process.
2. Inside that, one float pointer is declared & some random value is also provided there. Also, one
statement is used to mark the pointer allocation.
3. After that, we will use the ‘delete’ syntax & remove the allocated memory space for the floating
pointer. We will also use one statement to show the completion of the operation.
Let us try to find out the output of the above code. It will help to understand the process of removing memory leaks in the C++ programming language.
Output:
From the above output, we can see that the first statement is used to mark the memory leakage inside the program. And the second statement helps to know that the ‘delete’ keyword is encountered.
So, there will be no memory leakage present in the compiler because the declared pointer is now removed.
Conclusion:
As we saw, memory leaks in the C++ programming language are a very important topic. We need to understand this topic to easily solve difficult issues without any problems.
It’s very important for us to first identify the place where such problems are arising. We need to clarify the concept of dynamic memory allocation before moving to this topic. This topic is highly related to the dynamic memory allocation process.
It is advisable to clear the basic concept of dynamic memory allocation in C. We need to clear the concept of pointers to have a good grip on this topic. This is especially important when dealing with recursion in C++, where memory is allocated dynamically for function calls and can lead to stack overflows if not handled properly.
We need to remember to remove the memory space from the programming after allocating that. It will help us in the future while developing big projects.
