Define a destructor if a class needs an explicit action at object destruction

Reason

A destructor is implicitly invoked at the end of an object's lifetime. If the default destructor is sufficient, use it. Only define a non-default destructor if a class needs to execute code that is not already part of its members' destructors.

Example

template<typename A>
struct final_action {   // slightly simplified
    A act;
    final_action(A a) : act{a} {}
    ~final_action() { act(); }
};

template<typename A>
final_action<A> finally(A act)   // deduce action type
{
    return final_action<A>{act};
}

void test()
{
    auto act = finally([] { cout << "Exit test\n"; });  // establish exit action
    // ...
    if (something) return;   // act done here
    // ...
} // act done here

The whole purpose of final_action is to get a piece of code (usually a lambda) executed upon destruction.

Note

There are two general categories of classes that need a user-defined destructor:

• A class with a resource that is not already represented as a class with a destructor, e.g., a vector or a transaction class.
• A class that exists primarily to execute an action upon destruction, such as a tracer or final_action.

Example, bad

class Foo {   // bad; use the default destructor
public:
    // ...
    ~Foo() { s = ""; i = 0; vi.clear(); }  // clean up
private:
    string s;
    int i;
    vector<int> vi;
};

The default destructor does it better, more efficiently, and can't get it wrong.

Enforcement

Look for likely "implicit resources", such as pointers and references. Look for classes with destructors even though all their data members have destructors.