Share objects with std::shared_ptr

The std::shared_ptr class is a smart pointer that owns its managed object and maintains a use counter to keep track of copies. This recipe explores the use of shared_ptr to manage memory while sharing copies of the pointer.

Note

For more detail about smart pointers, see the introduction to the Manage allocated memory with std::unique_ptr recipe earlier in this chapter.

How to do it…

In this recipe, we examine std::shared_ptr with a demonstration class that prints when its constructors and destructor are called:

• First, we create a simple demonstration class:

  struct Thing {
      string_view thname{ "unk" };
      Thing() {
          cout << format("default ctor: {}\n", thname);
      }
      Thing(const string_view& n) : thname(n) {
          cout...