How do I explain strong exception safety?

Strong exception safety refers to a guarantee that if an exception is thrown during the execution of a function, the program state remains unchanged, as if the function call had not happened at all. This is particularly important in C++ when working with resource management and operations that modify state. Strong exception safety ensures that either all changes made during the execution are completed successfully or none are applied, ensuring that the system is left in a consistent state.

For instance, when adding an element to a data structure, if an error occurs during memory allocation, strong exception safety ensures that the data structure is not left in an invalid state, and any previous state remains intact.

Here’s an example demonstrating strong exception safety in a simple class that manages a dynamic array:


        class SafeArray {
        public:
            SafeArray(size_t size) : array(nullptr), size(size) {
                // Allocate memory - can throw std::bad_alloc
                array = new int[size];
            }

            ~SafeArray() {
                delete[] array; // Clean up memory
            }

            void set(size_t index, int value) {
                if (index >= size) throw std::out_of_range("Index out of bounds");
                array[index] = value;
            }

        private:
            int* array;
            size_t size;
        };

        void safeFunction() {
            SafeArray myArray(10);
            myArray.set(0, 1);
            // Further operations that may throw exceptions and maintain invariants
        }

How do I explain strong exception safety?

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How do I explain strong exception safety?

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