To use or not to use: deleteLater()

[codeslicer]

--First off, this might be a Newbie question, but it might not, so feel free to move it.

Anyways, in my application I have a variety of objects (like QSettings) and I think deleting them after they're used is a good way to free up memory. So, it seems I can't delete an object without an error being generated or my app freezing later.

So one time, I have an object defined in my header:

...
private:
    settings settingsChanger;
...

...
private:
    settings settingsChanger;
...

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The "settings" class is a QObject subclass that has a single QSettings object defined in the header and contains a variety of members to change values in QSettings. So, in my code after I'm done with settingChanger, naturally I want to delete it. So I use deleteLater() but my program just has a "signal" and the debugger stops it.

Doing the same thing with a pointer to the object, and having

...
private:
    settings *settingsChanger;
...

...
private:
    settings *settingsChanger;
...

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And in the definition:

...
settingsChanger = new settings(this);
...
settingsChanger->deleteLater()
...

...
settingsChanger = new settings(this);
...
settingsChanger->deleteLater()
...

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causes my program to get a signal too. So, I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong. Should I delete the QSettings in the destructor of my settings class? I thought deleteLater() was a complete failsafe that wouldn't cause problems like this, but am I wrong, or have I made a huge mistake?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

~codeslicer