Question : New int[0] and Sizeof on dynamically allocated memory

Sizeof on dynamically allocated memory

　　delete [] does know the size that was allocated. However, that knowledge resides in the runtime or in the operating system's memory manager, meaning that it is not available to the compiler during compilation. And sizeof() is not a real function, it is actually evaluated to a constant by the compiler, which is something it cannot do for dynamically allocated arrays, whose size is not known during compilation.

Also, consider this example:

int *arr = new int[256];
int *p = &arr[100];
printf("Size: %d\n", sizeof(p));

　　How would the compiler know what the size of p is? The root of the problem is that arrays in C and C++ are not first-class objects. They decay to pointers, and there is no way for the compiler or the program itself to know whether a pointer points to the beginning of a chunk of memory allocated by new, or to a single object, or to some place in the middle of a chunk of memory allocated by new.

　　One reason for this is that C and C++ leave memory management to the programmer and to the operating system, which is also why they do not have garbage collection. Implementation of newand delete is not part of the C++ standard, because C++ is meant to be used on a variety of platforms, which may manage their memory in very different ways. It may be possible to let C++ keep track of all the allocated arrays and their sizes if you are writing a word processor for a windows box running on the latest Intel CPU, but it may be completely infeasible when you are writing an embedded system running on a DSP.

new int[0]

　　

From 5.3.4/7

When the value of the expression in a direct-new-declarator is zero, the allocation function is called to allocate an array with no elements.

From 3.7.3.1/2

The effect of dereferencing a pointer returned as a request for zero size is undefined.

Also

Even if the size of the space requested [by new] is zero, the request can fail.

　　That means you can do it, but you can not legally (in a well defined manner across all platforms) dereference the memory that you get - you can only pass it to array delete - and you should delete it.

Here is an interesting foot-note (i.e not a normative part of the standard, but included for expository purposes) attached to the sentence from 3.7.3.1/2

[32. The intent is to have operator new() implementable by calling malloc() or calloc(), so the rules are substantially the same. C++ differs from C in requiring a zero request to return a non-null pointer.]