How to free an optional?

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1

I have function that maybe returns a string ?[] const u8.
When the result is null there is no memory allocated and nothing needs to be freed.
defer runs at the end of a block, so if I think the memory will get freed too early if I put the defer inside a conditional like this:

if (maybe_string) |a_string| {
    defer gpa.free(a_string);
}

What is the correct pattern here?

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2

I think you could rewrite the defer to use an if expression:
defer if (maybe_string) |a_string| gpa.free(a_string);

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3

Thank you. Works perfectly and much easier to read, too.

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