When do we have to define a destructor in derived class c++

Question

I'm kind of new to c++ and I'm facing memory leaks which made me wonder maybe I didn't understand something right.

I'm having:

.h file

class DeliveryVehicle{
public:
    //c'tor
    DeliveryVehicle(const char* ID, Quality quality);

    //d'tor
    virtual ~DeliveryVehicle();

    ...
protected:
    VehicleParcelQueue parcelQueue_;
}

.c file

DeliveryVehicle::~DeliveryVehicle(){
    while(!parcelQueue_.empty()) parcelQueue_.pop(); 
    // pop() calls removed element destructor
}

I have a derived class, in which I count on the default destructor, and not implementing a destructor explicitly.

I would like to know, is it ok in case I don't allocate memory in the derived class using "new"?

Additionally, I implemented fixed size queue of my own which inherits the Base Class Queue from STL:

.h file

class VehicleParcelQueue:public std::queue<Parcel*>{
public:
    const static int MaxParcelsNum = 5;
    Result push(Parcel*);
};

.cpp file

typedef enum result{SUCCESS = 1,FAILURE = 0} Result;

Result VehicleParcelQueue::push(Parcel* pParcel){
if (size() >= 5) return FAILURE;
else{
    queue<Parcel*>::push(pParcel);
    return SUCCESS;
}

As can be seen, also In this case, I didn't implement the destructor explicitly. Am I prone to memory leaks?

Maybe pop doesn't calling delete for Parcle but destructor to pointers? thanks

Answer 1

in addition to R Sahu answer, note that std::queue<> destructor is not virtual, any deletion from a pointer to Base will invoke undefined behavior (for that reason, you should generally not inherit from standard containers).

You should probably review your design, such as using a class member instead of inheritance, and preferring values to pointers if possible :

VehicleParcelQueue
{
    ...

    std::queue<Parcel> queue;
};