Is <new> only for Microsoft?

[cpjust]

I'm wondering if anyone knows if the <new> header file is a standard header file or just for MSVC++?
Also, what's the point of including it? new is already a built in operator...

 

[mseth]

It is standard, and allows you to do overriding of new and so on...

http://www.informit.com/guides/content.asp?g=cplusplus&seqNum=40

There's lots more you can do with it, open up the file in your \include\ directory ("new" and/or "new.h") and poke around at the stuff in it, then google it.

 

[cpjust]

Thanks, but I still don't see why I would use <new>
I can overload new and delete without including <new>

 

[ArkM]

Only <new> header declares std::bad_alloc exception (and std::size_t type - see C++ Standard).
Well, if you want to redefine new/delete looks like its pre-defined prototypes, you must include <new> header...

 

[cpjust]

I've always used std::bad_alloc from <stdexcept>

But even if you are not redefining the new operator, I've seen examples in books that include <new> for programs as simple as this:

#include <new>
#include <iostream>
using std::cout;
using std::endl;

void main( void )
{
    char*  pszName = new char[40];
    cout << "Enter your name: ";
    cin >> pszName;
    cout << endl << "Hello " << pszName << endl;
    delete pszName;
}

Is there any point in using <new> in something like this?

 

[chipperMDW]

One reason to include it is that it declares the [tt]nothrow[/tt] object.

Previous implementations of C++ would have [tt]new[/tt] return 0 when it failed to allocate memory. No one ever checked for this, though, and exceptions provided a better way to report the error, so that's what the new [tt]new[/tt] does in Standard C++.

However, if you want the old behavior, you can pass the (Standard) [tt]nothrow[/tt] object as an argument to [tt]new[/tt] and it will return 0 on failure and not throw an exception.


There's really no reason to include <new> in a simple program like that, at least not in Standard C++. It might be meaningful for particular compilers or libraries, though.