Possible Memory leak while erasing a vector of shared pointers

Question

I have the following vector:

vector<boost::shared_ptr<Entity>> entities;

In order to reset the vector I am using erase

entities.erase(entities.begin(), entities.end());

Question

is this procedure correct? Will it lead to memory leak? should I also delete FactClass?

Class Entity

The constructor of class Entity takes as argument a vector of shared pointers of type FactClass

class Entity
{
public:
    Entity(std::vector<boost::shared_ptr<FactClass>>);
    vector<boost::shared_ptr<FactClass>> getClassFact() const;
private:
    vector<boost::shared_ptr<FactClass>> _listFacts;
};

Class FactClass

The constructor of class FactClass takes as argument a vector of shared pointers of type Fact etc.

class FactClass
{
    public:
        FactClass(std::vector<boost::shared_ptr<Fact>>);
        std::vector<boost::shared_ptr<Fact>> getFacts() const;
    private:
        vector<boost::shared_ptr<Fact>> _fact;
};

I actually Wanted to reset the vector that's why I used erase. what is the difference if I use clear? — Hani Goc
@HaniGoc it's less typing, less errorprone and it's more expressive of intent — sehe
"should I also delete FactClass?" If you still needed to do that, what purpose do you think shared_ptr would serve? Why would you bother to use it if it didn't do that for you? — Jonathan Wakely

Otomo Otomo · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-23T11:03:34

No, this will not leak memory (if the implementation of the shared_ptr is correct, which it is for boost's and std's shared_ptr). The moment the shared_ptr object is destroyed the memory will be released.

Possible Memory leak while erasing a vector of shared pointers

Question

Class Entity

Class FactClass

3 Answers