Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design

3.7. Dynamic Memory Allocation

When you design programs, you cannot always determine how much memory you need before your program runs. The length of an array or the number of structures, for example, may be unknown until your executing program determines what these values should be. An area of memory called the free store is available in the C++ run-time environment to handle dynamic memory allocation at run time. Programs use operator new to allocate memory from free store and operator delete to release free store memory. This section introduces new and delete and shows you how to allocate memory dynamically at run time.

Operator new

The predeclared formats for dynamic allocation with operator new are

new Type                                // one object 
new Type(initial_value ...