[Solved] Why this code snippet said to contain error?

Question

a1=a2 //What does this line mean???

= is the assignment operator. This actually assigns the value of the LHS operand to the RHS operand.

Here, this line means, assign the value of a2 to a1, i.e, this assigns the a2 pointer to a1. That is, a1 and a2 points to the same memory location.

Now, once you call delete[] with a1, it actually frees the memory. Then, accssing either a1[i] or a2[i] is same, accessing already free-d memory which invokes undefined behavior.

To help understand, consider the analogy of a glass of juice with two straws into it. Once you have drank the juice via either of the straw, you cannot get anymore juice via the other one.

Accepted Answer

a1=a2 //What does this line mean???

= is the assignment operator. This actually assigns the value of the LHS operand to the RHS operand.

Here, this line means, assign the value of a2 to a1, i.e, this assigns the a2 pointer to a1. That is, a1 and a2 points to the same memory location.

Now, once you call delete[] with a1, it actually frees the memory. Then, accssing either a1[i] or a2[i] is same, accessing already free-d memory which invokes undefined behavior.

To help understand, consider the analogy of a glass of juice with two straws into it. Once you have drank the juice via either of the straw, you cannot get anymore juice via the other one.