# bson_destroy_with_steal()

## Synopsis

    uint8_t *
    bson_destroy_with_steal (bson_t   *bson,
                             bool      steal,
                             uint32_t *length);

## Parameters

bson | A bson_t.
steal | A bool indicating if the underlying buffer should be stolen.
length | A location for storing the resulting buffer length.

## Description

The bson_destroy_with_steal() function shall destroy a bson_t structure but return the underlying buffer instead of freeing it. If steal is false, this is equivalent to calling bson_destroy(). It is a programming error to call this function on a bson_t that is not a top-level bson_t, shuch as those initialized with bson_append_document_begin(), bson_append_array_begin(), and bson_writer_begin().

## Returns

bson_destroy_with_steal() shall return a buffer containing the contents of the bson_t if steal is non-zero. This should be freed with bson_free() when no longer in use. length will be set to the length of the bson document if non-NULL.