delphi - Bad reference to an object already freed

Question

Is there a way to be sure we hold a useable reference to an object i.e. being sure it has not been already freed leaving that non nil reference dangling.

Answer 1

If you're using FastMM4 as your Memory Manager, you can check that the class is not TFreeObject.
Or, in a more standard case, use a routine that will verify that your object is what it says it is by checking the class VMT.

There have been such ValidateObj functions hannging around for some time (by Ray Lischner and Hallvard Vassbotn: http://hallvards.blogspot.com/2004/06/hack-6checking-for-valid-object.html)

Here's another:

function ValidateObj(Obj: TObject): Pointer;
// see { Virtual method table entries } in System.pas
begin
  Result := Obj;
  if Assigned(Result) then
    try
      if Pointer(PPointer(Obj)^) <> Pointer(Pointer(Cardinal(PPointer(Obj)^) + Cardinal(vmtSelfPtr))^) then
        // object not valid anymore
        Result := nil;
    except
      Result := nil;
    end;
end;

Update: A bit of caution... The above function will ensure that the result is either nil or a valid non nil Object. It does not guarantee that the Obj is still what you think it is, in case where the Memory Manager has already reallocated that previously freed memory.