I need to free memory from a container with elements of pointers, where the container value_type is a pointer type. I cannot use the checked_delete template as it is, as the template parameter is defined without the '*' pointer. For example, the following fails (obviously): typedef std::vector X; X x; ... std::for_each(x.begin(), x.end(), boost::checked_delete); I'm using VC7, so have no partial specialization available, so using the type traits library remove_pointer<> does not work: typedef boost::remove_pointer<typename X::value_type>::type type; std::for_each(x.begin(), x.end(), boost::checked_delete<type>); My existing solution uses a unary functor, as below, but this met with critism on the Boost Developers' list. What would be the 'boost' solution to this problem? template<typename T> class free_heap_ptr : public std::unary_function { public: free_heap_ptr() { } ~free_heap_ptr() { } void operator() (T p) { delete p; } }; ... std::for_each(changes_.begin(), changes_.end(), free_heap_ptr<typename change_list::value_type>()); TIA -- Craig