How to Avoid Memory Leaks and Deal with Delphi Exceptions

In any Windows program development, it is very important to detect Memory leaks.  For a programming language like Delphi, the programmer can dynamically allocate additional memory to hold data and variables that are required for the moment but not used throughout the program. When those memory areas are no longer needed, the programmer must remember to deallocate them, otherwise, it will result in leaks. In this video from the recently concluded DelphiCon 2023, Maico Dal Ri will help us understand Memory Leaks and how to effectively avoid them. We will also learn more about Delphi Exceptions.

How to Avoid Memory Leaks in Delphi

A memory leak occurs when programmers create a memory in a heap and forget to delete it. As a consequence, it reduces the performance of the computer by reducing the amount of available memory. In the worst-case scenario, if these memory leaks were left unattended, too much of the available memory will be allocated for these leaks. This may stop the system from working properly. The application might also fail and slows down the overall performance.

In this video, Maico Dal Ri will demonstrate how to effectively avoid Memory leaks. The first of the methods demonstrated in the video is the use of ReportMemoryLeaksOnShutdown, a Delphi native resource that can report memory that was allocated but not freed by the time the memory manager shuts down. He also highlighted the use of the RegisterExpectedMemoryLeak function that registers a memory location that an application has allocated and does not expect to be free.

You can also take advantage of some complimentary tools to map or solve memory leaks problem. This includes the use of Deleaker, a memory management plugin. The video also tackles proper exception handling in Delphi and effectively avoids those catastrophic errors in the application. The video concludes with a Q&A session with Jim McKeeth and Dion Mai.

Feel free to watch the video below to learn more about the Memory Leaks and Exceptions in Delphi