Pointer Scope Questions

Hi,

I'm relatively new to C++ ad i'm trying to make a winhttp wrapper class. The problem is that I have to put a reference back from inside a function. But then the pointer goes out of scope because you can't destroy it:

Code:

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int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE inst,HINSTANCE prev,LPSTR cmd,int show)
{               
        HTTPReq* tst = new  HTTPReq();
        HTTPReq::REQUEST_CONTEXT* context=tst->Connect(L"arevico.com",80,L"Firefox",true);
        tst->SendRequest(context,L"ahe",L"referer",L"?page=1");
      // here i want to be able to pass context (so actually a item in the list defined in the  class
        Sleep(10000);
        delete tst;       
        return 0;
    }

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And the snipper from the class:

Code:

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list<REQUEST_CONTEXT> requestcontexes; //
CRITICAL_SECTION cs;
HINTERNET hSession;

REQUEST_CONTEXT* Connect(LPCWSTR servername,unsigned int port,LPCWSTR useragent,bool async=false){
                REQUEST_CONTEXT cpContext;
                EnterCriticalSection(&cs);
                requestcontexes.push_front(cpContext);

                        REQUEST_CONTEXT* refContext=&requestcontexes.front(); //locally declared pointer should be destroyed later
                        hSession= WinHttpOpen(useragent,WINHTTP_ACCESS_TYPE_NO_PROXY,NULL,NULL,async ? WINHTTP_FLAG_ASYNC : NULL);
                        refContext->hConnect=WinHttpConnect(hSession,servername,port,0);
                        //delete refContext; //you cant do this here
                        LeaveCriticalSection(&cs);
                return refContext;
        }

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What is the best way in C++ standards to do this?

So long as that REQUEST_CONTEXT remains within the list and the list is not destroyed, the pointer to it will remain valid. (That's one of the nice properties of std::lists.) There is no need to delete the pointer, since you did not allocate it with new.