Hi Raghu, > what am I doing wrong. Change this: Base *temp = new Child [1024] (3, 2); ...to this... Child *temp = new Child [1024]; Add in a default constructor for Child, and probably a default constructor for Base too -- since you cannot use initialization parameters for a new[]. When the delete[] deletes the Base array, the first Child element happens to coincide enough (on your platform; although I think its not guaranteed to be portable) in memory with temp[0] that the code actually executes the virtual destructor and gets to Child::~Child as desired. When it moves on to the destructor for temp[1], the stride is off because temp does not really point to an array of Base, it points to an array of Child... and then you get a bus error when the code attempts to dereference who-knows-what garbage memory as if it were a virtual functional table pointer to get to the virtual destructor. You can use Base* to point to a single Child object. You cannot use Base* to point to an array of Child objects. (Well, you can get to the first Child object, but none of the subsequent ones.) You could change your code to use a std::vector<Base*>. Or use one of the Boost managed containers and/or smart pointers. HTH, --Eljay
