Knowledge Base

PRB: AllocMemoryDebug Gives Assertion or Trace Error on New[0]

Article ID: 125309

Article Last Modified on 11/21/2006

Microsoft Foundation Class Library 4.2, when used with:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.51
- Microsoft Visual C++ 1.0 Professional Edition

This article was previously published under Q125309

SYMPTOMS

If new is called to allocate an array whose size is determined by a variable that has a value of zero (0), the program terminates with the following message in a debug build:

Assertion Failed! <name> Windows Application:File Afxmem.cpp, Line <line>

The <line> value depends on the version of MFC that you have:

In MFC 2.0 <line> = 275
In MFC 2.1 <line> = 267
In MFC 2.5 <line> = 277
In MFC 2.51 <line> = 286

In MFC 3.x, the code generates a TRACE message similar to this:

Warning: Allocating zero length memory block.

RESOLUTION

This behavior changed with the introduction of Visual C++ version 2.0. In the MFC that shipped with version 2.0, a TRACE is output to the Debug Window in Debug mode.

If you encounter the assertion failure, you can work around it by simply not calling new for a zero-length array. Check for a zero value before calling new. If you need to have a valid address for the memory block, allocate an array of size 1 as in new[1].

STATUS

This behavior is by design. It is intended to help programmers detect logic errors in programs.

MORE INFORMATION

The run-time operator new() can be called with the argument zero. A distinct (non-null) pointer to an object will be returned. (See Section 5.3.3, third paragraph of the ARM - M.A.Ellis, B.Stroustrup.) This is the behavior of Visual C++ versions 2.x and 4.0. However, Visual C++ version 4.0 does not warn when new() is called with a zero size. It is the programmer's responsibility to ensure the pointer returned by new() is of the appropriate size.

Sample Code

/* Compile options needed:
        Default MFC App.
*/ 

int size=0;
char * p = new char[size];

// With MFC 2.51 or earlier, this causes an Assert to be thrown
// With MFC 3.x this causes a TRACE warning

Additional query words: 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.10 2.50 2.51

Keywords: kbnoupdate kbprb KB125309