Using delete keyword on storage variables

Question

Here is an implementation: I am running delete keyword on two different struct variables. on storage variable remix gives an error but not on memory. Why is this so?

pragma solidity ^0.4.0;

contract myContract
{
    struct abc {
        uint8[] m;
        uint a ;
    }

    function myFucn() returns(bool)
    {
        abc storage b;   
        abc memory a;
        delete a;
        delete b; // error unary operator cannot be applied to storage pointer.
        return true;
    }
}

Answer 1

abc storage b;

is declaring an uninitialized storage pointer, it should be used to point to some variable in storage.

It is not possible to delete a storage pointer, even if it has been initialized, as stated in the solidity documentation. Deleting it would "reset" the pointer, but there is no sensible location for it to point to, so it is not allowed.

However, if you had a state variable (which is implicitly stored in storage), you could delete this directly e.g. the following is allowed

contract MyContract {
    string myStorageVariable;

    function removeTheVariable(string strArg) public {
        myStorageVariable = strArg;
        delete myStorageVariable;
    }
}