Smart pointer

A smart pointer is an abstract data type that simulates a pointer while providing additional features, such as automatic memory management or bounds checking. These additional features are intended to reduce bugs caused by the misuse of pointers while retaining efficiency. Smart pointers typically keep track of the memory they point to. They may also be used to manage other resources, such as network connections and file handles. Smart pointers originated in the C++ programming language.

Misuse of pointers can be a major source of bugs. Smart pointers prevent most situations of memory leaks by making the memory deallocation automatic. More generally, they make object destruction automatic: the object controlled by a smart pointer is automatically destroyed (finalized and then deallocated) when the last (or only) owner of the object is destroyed, for example because the owner is a local variable, and execution leaves the variable's scope. Smart pointers also eliminate dangling pointers by postponing destruction until the object is no longer in use.