Search code examples
c++pointersdelete-operator

Error when deleting a pointer

I'm beginning and there is something that I don't understand with pointers. I have the following code returning an error I don't know why:

std::string key = "myKey";    
const unsigned char* aesKey = reinterpret_cast<const unsigned char *> (key.c_str());

// Executing some stuffs

delete aesKey;

the first time the code executes everything works fine, but the second time i get an error which I don't get if I don't have the delete line (Instead I have a memory leak, quite worst).

Someone could explain me why this is not working?

The sample below is working fine in the same context (same method, ...)

unsigned char* test = new char;
//doing some stuff
delete test;
Solution

  • First: you don't own that C string, so it's not yours to delete[]. The std::string still owns it and will delete[] it later.

    Second: arrays are deleted with delete[], not delete. So you're using the wrong operator anyway.