Use pointers

How to Use Pointers

Taken from:

http://www.cs.sandia.gov/~rabartl/TeuchosMemoryManagementSAND.pdf

http://trilinos.sandia.gov/RefCountPtrBeginnersGuideSAND.pdf

Raw Dynamic Memory Management

This is the old C++ way of doing things, don't use this anymore:

#include "example_get_args.hpp"

// Abstract interfaces
class UtilityBase {
public:
    virtual void f() const = 0;
};

class UtilityBaseFactory {
public:
    virtual UtilityBase* createUtility() const = 0;
};

// Concrete implementations
class UtilityA : public UtilityBase {
public:
    void f() const { std::cout<<"\nUtilityA::f() called, this="<<this<<"\n"; }
};

class UtilityB : public UtilityBase {
public:
    void f() const { std::cout<<"\nUtilityB::f() called, this="<<this<<"\n"; }
};

class UtilityAFactory : public UtilityBaseFactory {
public:
    UtilityBase* createUtility() const { return new UtilityA(); }
};

class UtilityBFactory : public UtilityBaseFactory {
public:
    UtilityBase* createUtility() const { return new UtilityB(); }
};

// Client classes
class ClientA {
public:
    void f( const UtilityBase &utility ) const { utility.f(); }
};

class ClientB {
    UtilityBase *utility_;
public:
    ClientB() : utility_(0) {}
    ˜ClientB() { delete utility_; }
    void initialize( UtilityBase *utility ) { utility_ = utility; }
    void g( const ClientA &a ) { a.f(*utility_); }
};

class ClientC {
    const UtilityBaseFactory *utilityFactory_;
    UtilityBase *utility_;
    bool shareUtility_;
public:
    ClientC( const UtilityBaseFactory *utilityFactory, bool shareUtility )
        :utilityFactory_(utilityFactory)
        utility_(utilityFactory->createUtility())
        ,shareUtility_(shareUtility) {}
    ˜ClientC() { delete utilityFactory_; delete utility_; }

    void h( ClientB *b ) {
        if( shareUtility_ )
            b->initialize(utility_);
        else
            b->initialize(utilityFactory_->createUtility());
    }
};

// Main program
int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
    // Read options from the commandline
    bool useA, shareUtility;
    example_get_args(argc,argv,&useA,&shareUtility);
    // Create factory
    UtilityBaseFactory *utilityFactory = 0;
    if(useA) utilityFactory = new UtilityAFactory();
    else utilityFactory = new UtilityBFactory();
    // Create clients
    ClientA a;
    ClientB b1, b2;
    ClientC c(utilityFactory,shareUtility);
    // Do some stuff
    c.h(&b1);
    c.h(&b2);
    b1.g(a);
    b2.g(a);
    // Cleanup memory
    delete utilityFactory;
}

Refactored Program Using RCP

This is the recommended way of doing things:

#include "Teuchos_RCP.hpp"
#include "example_get_args.hpp"

// Inject symbols for RCP so we don’t need Teuchos:: qualification
using Teuchos::RCP;
using Teuchos::rcp; // Warning! This can be dangerous and is not to be used in general!
using Teuchos::Ptr;

// Abstract interfaces
class UtilityBase {
public:
    virtual void f() const = 0;
};

class UtilityBaseFactory {
public:
    virtual RCP<UtilityBase> createUtility() const = 0;
};

// Concrete implementations
class UtilityA : public UtilityBase {
public:
    void f() const { std::cout<<"\nUtilityA::f() called, this="<<this<<"\n"; }
};

class UtilityB : public UtilityBase {
public:
    void f() const { std::cout<<"\nUtilityB::f() called, this="<<this<<"\n"; }
};

class UtilityAFactory : public UtilityBaseFactory {
public:
    RCP<UtilityBase> createUtility() const { return rcp(new UtilityA()); }
};

class UtilityBFactory : public UtilityBaseFactory {
public:
    RCP<UtilityBase> createUtility() const { return rcp(new UtilityB()); }
};

// Client classes
class ClientA {
public:
    void f( const UtilityBase &utility ) const { utility.f(); }
};

class ClientB {
    RCP<UtilityBase> utility_;
public:
    void initialize(const RCP<UtilityBase> &utility) { utility_=utility; }
    void g( const ClientA &a ) { a.f(*utility_); }
};

class ClientC {
    RCP<const UtilityBaseFactory> utilityFactory_;
    RCP<UtilityBase> utility_;
    bool shareUtility_;
public:
    ClientC( const RCP<const UtilityBaseFactory> &utilityFactory, bool shareUtility )
    :utilityFactory_(utilityFactory)
    ,utility_(utilityFactory->createUtility())
    ,shareUtility_(shareUtility) {}

    void h( const Ptr<ClientB> &b ) {
        if( shareUtility_ ) b->initialize(utility_);
        else b->initialize(utilityFactory_->createUtility());
    }
};

// Main program
int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
    // Read options from the commandline
    bool useA, shareUtility;
    example_get_args(argc,argv,&useA,&shareUtility);
    // Create factory
    RCP<UtilityBaseFactory> utilityFactory;
    if(useA) utilityFactory = rcp(new UtilityAFactory());
    else utilityFactory = rcp(new UtilityBFactory());
    // Create clients
    ClientA a;
    ClientB b1, b2;
    ClientC c(utilityFactory,shareUtility);
    // Do some stuff
    c.h(&b1);
    c.h(&b2);
    b1.g(a);
    b2.g(a);
}