C++ delete object create with new when needed for return

Question

How do I delete the space I allocated with new when I need to return the result. I used this so if I don't find an object I return back an object with a dummy sentinel value.

ClassObject* ClassObjectTwo::find(string findid) {
        ClassObject *sendback;
        bool found;

        for(vector<ClassObject>::iterator it = data.begin(); it != data.end(); it++) {
                if ( it->get_id() == findid) {
                        found = true;
                        sendback = &(*it);
                }
        }

        if(!found) {
                sendback = new ClassObject;
                sendback->set_key(100);
        }

        return sendback;
}

Or is this not a problem as its destroyed when out of scope. The only other solution I can think of is place the object in the constructor and delete via the constructor. I just didn't want to add a variable for one function.

Answer 1

It is perfectly fine to destroy a dynamically created object outside the function.

However, in this case it would be better to return NULL.