Mind block: temp object destruction

[hendrixj]

I've got a case where I want a class to be used only as a temporary object which completes the action at destruction. (For "complete" think "transmits itself").

So, when is a temporary object destroyed?

{
    TempClass() << "Stuff"; // here?
    ...
} // here?

[jonnin]

I don't know for sure, but you can find out by putting prints (with flushes of course!) into your class destructor and again a various places after the temporary was created to nail it down. I also do not know if the compiler and optimizations can change this much or it it is set in stone --- hopefully the compiler has some leeway as its clearly faster to destroy once and create once if such code were called in a loop, hanging onto the temporary inside the loop to reuse for example, while other times it may be better to destory immediately. It may also vary a little by calling conventions, not sure. Or the standard may have a set way to do it that I am unaware of.

I would not do this. Poke it into the temporary, call a class function (even if you make the temporary a functor), and let the destructor be normal (processing data in the destructor is not really normal). You pay for an extra function call, but given that you are willing to use a temporary and suffer a full object creation + destruction, thats peanuts.

[Danny]

{
    TempClass() << "Stuff"; // here!
    ...
}

The general rule is this: unless the temp is bound to a reference, which isn't the case here, it's destroyed immediately upon reaching the ; that terminates its declaration. If it were destroyed upon exiting the block, i.e., at }, it would be a normal object, not a temp.