Destructor (computer programming)

In object-oriented programming, a destructor (sometimes abbreviated dtor[1]) is a method which is invoked mechanically just before the memory of the object is released.

With most kinds of automatic garbage collection algorithms, the releasing of memory may happen a long time after the object becomes unreachable, making destructors (called finalizers in this case) unsuitable for most purposes.

In older versions of the standard, pseudo-destructors were specified to have no effect, however that was changed in a defect report to make them end the lifetime of the object they are called on.

[9] Objects which cannot be safely copied and/or assigned should be disabled from such semantics by declaring their corresponding functions as deleted within a public encapsulation level.

A detailed description of this method can be found in Scott Meyers' popular book, Effective Modern C++ (Item 11: "Prefer deleted functions to private undefined ones."[10]).