What are dangling pointers and how can they cause issues in programming?

What are dangling pointers and how can they cause issues in programming?

Dangling pointers are pointers that do not point to a valid object or memory location. They occur when an object is deleted or goes out of scope, but the pointer still references the old memory address.

Can you give me an example of a dangling pointer?

Sure! If you have a pointer that points to a dynamically allocated memory and you free that memory, the pointer becomes a dangling pointer because it still holds the address of the freed memory.

What problems can arise from using dangling pointers?

Using dangling pointers can lead to undefined behavior, crashes, or data corruption, as accessing memory that has been freed can cause unpredictable results.

How can I avoid creating dangling pointers in my code?

To avoid dangling pointers, always set pointers to NULL after freeing them, and be cautious with object lifetimes and scope.