The use of malloc() and free() functions in a C++ file is not recommended and is even dangerous:
1. malloc() requires the exact number of bytes as an argument whereas new calculates the size of the allocated object automatically. By using new, silly mistakes such as the following are avoided:
long * p = malloc(sizeof(short)); //p originally pointed to a short; //changed later (but malloc's arg was not)2. malloc() does not handle allocation failures, so you have to test the return value of malloc() on each and every call. This tedious and dangerous function imposes performance penalty and bloats your .exe files. On the other hand, new throws an exception of type std::bad_alloc when it fails, so your code may contain only one catch(std::bad_alloc) clause to handle such exceptions.
3. As opposed to new, malloc() does not invoke the object’s constructor. It only allocates uninitialized memory. The use of objects allocated this way is undefined and should never occur. Similarly, free() does not invoke its object’s destructor.
