Smart Pointers challenge question

Question

Smart pointers are a very important concept from C++ not covered in this course. I want you to explain with your own words what is a smart pointer and give examples of usage for unique_ptr and shared_ptr. Clearer explanation will be declared the winner.

Answer 1

smart pointers are smart in memory allocations and deallocations in heap.
we use new operator and allocate memory but sometimes we forget to deallocate it. if you declare a smart pointer it takes care of memory leaks and dangling pointers on its own.
scoped_ptr cannot be copied whereas shared_ptr can be copied.
if copied , it is smart enough to maintain use_count to calculate the number of pointers used.
unique_ptr and weak_ptr has some specific use.