std::allocator<T>::allocate

 

C++

Compiler support

Freestanding and hosted

Language

Standard library

Standard library headers

Named requirements

Feature test macros (C++20)

Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

Metaprogramming library (C++11)

Diagnostics library

General utilities library

Strings library

Containers library

Iterators library

Ranges library (C++20)

Algorithms library

Numerics library

Localizations library

Input/output library

Filesystem library (C++17)

Regular expressions library (C++11)

Concurrency support library (C++11)

Execution support library (C++26)

Technical specifications

Symbols index

External libraries

 

Dynamic memory management

Uninitialized memory algorithms uninitialized_copy uninitialized_fill uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) voidify (C++20) uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_fill_n uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) construct_at (C++20) Constrained uninitialized memory algorithms ranges::uninitialized_copy (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_fill (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_move (C++20) ranges::construct_at (C++20) ranges::destroy (C++20) ranges::destroy_n (C++20) ranges::destroy_at (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_copy_n (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_fill_n (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_move_n (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_default_construct (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_value_construct (C++20) ranges::uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++20)   ranges::uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++20) Allocators allocator allocator_traits (C++11) allocation_result (C++23) allocator_arg (C++11) uses_allocator (C++11) uses_allocator_construction_args (C++20) make_obj_using_allocator (C++20) uninitialized_construct_using_allocator (C++20) scoped_allocator_adaptor (C++11) pmr::polymorphic_allocator (C++17) Memory resources pmr::memory_resource (C++17) pmr::get_default_resource (C++17) pmr::set_default_resource (C++17) pmr::new_delete_resource (C++17) pmr::null_memory_resource (C++17) pmr::synchronized_pool_resource (C++17) pmr::unsynchronized_pool_resource (C++17)   pmr::monotonic_buffer_resource (C++17) pmr::pool_options (C++17) Garbage collection support declare_reachable (C++11)(until C++23) undeclare_reachable (C++11)(until C++23) declare_no_pointers (C++11)(until C++23) undeclare_no_pointers (C++11)(until C++23) pointer_safety (C++11)(until C++23) get_pointer_safety (C++11)(until C++23) Uninitialized storage raw_storage_iterator (until C++20*) get_temporary_buffer (until C++20*) return_temporary_buffer (until C++20*) Explicit lifetime management start_lifetime_asstart_lifetime_as_array (C++23)(C++23)

Smart pointers unique_ptr (C++11) shared_ptr (C++11) weak_ptr (C++11) auto_ptr (until C++17*) owner_less (C++11) owner_less<void> (C++17) owner_hash (C++26) owner_equal (C++26) enable_shared_from_this (C++11) bad_weak_ptr (C++11) default_delete (C++11) out_ptr_t (C++23) inout_ptr_t (C++23) Low level memory management operator new operator new[] operator delete operator delete[] get_new_handler (C++11) set_new_handler launder (C++17) bad_alloc bad_array_new_length (C++11) nothrow_t align_val_t (C++17) destroying_delete_t (C++20) new_handler nothrow Miscellaneous pointer_traits (C++11) to_address (C++20) addressof (C++11) align (C++11) assume_aligned (C++20) C Library malloc calloc realloc    aligned_alloc (C++17) free

 

std::allocator

Member functions

allocator::allocator

allocator::~allocator

allocator::address (until C++20)

allocator::allocate

allocator::allocate_at_least (C++23)

allocator::deallocate

allocator::max_size (until C++20)

allocator::construct (until C++20)

allocator::destroy (until C++20)

Non-member functions

operator==operator!= (until C++20)

 

	(1)
pointer allocate( size_type n, const void* hint = 0 );			(until C++17)
T* allocate( std::size_t n, const void* hint );			(since C++17) (deprecated) (removed in C++20)
		(2)
T* allocate( std::size_t n );				(since C++17) (until C++20)
constexpr T* allocate( std::size_t n );				(since C++20)

Allocates n * sizeof(T) bytes of uninitialized storage by calling ::operator new(std::size_t) or ::operator new(std::size_t, std::align_val_t)(since C++17), but it is unspecified when and how this function is called. The pointer hint may be used to provide locality of reference: the allocator, if supported by the implementation, will attempt to allocate the new memory block as close as possible to hint.

Then, this function creates an array of type T[n] in the storage and starts its lifetime, but does not start lifetime of any of its elements.

Use of this function is ill-formed if T is an incomplete type.

In order to use this function in a constant expression, the allocated storage must be deallocated within the evaluation of the same expression.

(since C++20)

Parameters

n	-	the number of objects to allocate storage for
hint	-	pointer to a nearby memory location

Return value

Pointer to the first element of an array of n objects of type T whose elements have not been constructed yet.

Exceptions

Throws std::bad_array_new_length if std::numeric_limits<std::size_t>::max() / sizeof(T) < n.

(since C++11)

Throws std::bad_alloc if allocation fails.

Notes

The "unspecified when and how" wording makes it possible to combine or optimize away heap allocations made by the standard library containers, even though such optimizations are disallowed for direct calls to ::operator new. For example, this is implemented by libc++ ([1] and [2]).

After calling allocate() and before construction of elements, pointer arithmetic of T* is well-defined within the allocated array, but the behavior is undefined if elements are accessed.

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 578	C++98	hint was required to be either ​0​ or a pointer previously returned from allocate() and not yet passed to deallocate()	not required
LWG 3190	C++11	allocate() might allocate storage of wrong size	throws std::bad_array_new_length instead

See also

allocate [static]

allocates uninitialized storage using the allocator (public static member function of std::allocator_traits<Alloc>)