Tim, > When I extract a feature from a layer, what issues arise with the lifetime > of the feature and the layer? If I keep the layer alive, will the feature > continue to be valid?
Yes, feature objects (at least at C++ objects, not speaking about bindings) retrieved by GetNextFeature() and GetFeature() are completely free-standing. You can close the datasource and they should still be valid (reason: they keep a reference to their feature definition object, and once the last feature has been destroyed and the datasource closed, the feature definition will be destroyed) > > If I clone a feature, is it now standalone or does it still depend on the > layer/datasource in anyway? No, and you don't need to clone it actually. See above > > I see the note about destroying features prior to deleting the layer but > need a bit of clarification on the dependencies. Are you refering to "It is critical that all features associated with an OGRLayer (more specifically an OGRFeatureDefn) be deleted before that layer/datasource is deleted." ? Well, I think the note is wrong actually. Perhaps it dates back to old ages where the feature definition was not yet ref-counted ?? Best regards, Even -- Geospatial professional services http://even.rouault.free.fr/services.html _______________________________________________ gdal-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/gdal-dev
