Avoid classes with missing destructor declarations in header files

This code insight verifies in C++ applications if classes in header files (.h) haven’t declared destructors. Highlight counts one occurrence for each missing class destructor found in a header file.

Why you should care

In some cases, missing class destructors can lead to memory leaks, causing software unstability.

CAST recommendations

Declaring class destructors in header files when possible is recommended.

References

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21088743/missing-destructor-declaration
https://www.quantstart.com/articles/C-Virtual-Destructors-How-to-Avoid-Memory-Leaks

About CAST and Highlight’s Code Insights

Over the last 25 years, CAST has leveraged unique knowledge on software quality measurement by analyzing thousands of applications and billions of lines of code. Based on this experience and community standards on programming best practices, Highlight implements hundreds of code insights across 15+ technologies to calculate health factors of a software.