Does a static object within a function introduce a potential race condition?
- by Jeremy Friesner
I'm curious about the following code:
class MyClass
{
public:
MyClass() : _myArray(new int[1024]) {}
~MyClass() {delete [] _myArray;}
private:
int * _myArray;
};
// This function may be called by different threads in an unsynchronized manner
void MyFunction()
{
static const MyClass _myClassObject;
[...]
}
Is there a possible race condition in the above code? Specifically, is the compiler likely to generate code equivalent to the following, "behind the scenes"?
void MyFunction()
{
static bool _myClassObjectInitialized = false;
if (_myClassObjectInitialized == false)
{
_myClassObjectInitialized = true;
_myClassObject.MyClass(); // call constructor to set up object
}
[...]
}
... in which case, if two threads were to call MyFunction() nearly-simultaneously, then _myArray might get allocated twice, causing a memory leak?
Or is this handled correctly somehow?
