C Memory Management

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C language provides several functions for memory allocation and management. These functions can be found in the header file <stdlib.h>.

Dynamic Allocation Functions in C

Here this table lists several functions available in C to perform memory allocation and management

Function	Description
void *calloc(int num, int size)	used to allocate an array of num elements each of which size in bytes will be size
void *malloc(int num)	used to allocate an array of num bytes and leave them initialized.
void free(void *address)	This function release a block of memory block specified by address.
void realloc(void address, int newsize)	used to re-allocate memory extending it upto newsize.

C Dynamic Memory Allocation Example

Here is an example of dynamic memory allocation in C:

/* C Memory Management - This program illustrates
 * the concept of dynamic memory allocation in C
 */

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<conio.h>

void main()
{
	char name[100];
	char *desc;
	int len1, len2;
	clrscr();

	printf("Enter your name : ");
	gets(name);

	desc = malloc(200 * sizeof(char));
	if(desc == NULL)
	{
		fprintf(stderr, "Error - unable to allocate required memory\n");
	}
	else
	{
		strcpy(desc, "a computer programmer.");
	}
	printf("Name = %s\n", name );
	printf("Description: %s, %s\n", name, desc);
	len1 = strlen(desc);
	len2 = strlen("a computer programmer.");
	if(len1 == len2)
	{
		printf("\nDynamically allocated desc's length = %d\n", len1);
	}
	else
	{
		printf("Not possible..!!");
	}
	getch();
}

Here is the sample run of this C program:

Same program can be written using calloc(), the only thing you need to replace malloc() with calloc() as follows:

calloc(200, sizeof(char));

Here is another program, showing how to resize and release memory in C:

/* C Memory Management - Dynamic Memory Management Program */

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<string.h>

void main()
{
	char name[100];
	char *desc;
	clrscr();

	printf("Enter your name : ");
	gets(name);

	desc = malloc(30 * sizeof(char));
	if(desc == NULL)
	{
	fprintf(stderr, "Error - unable in allocating the required memory\n");
	}
	else
	{
		strcpy(desc, "a C programmer.");
	}
	desc = realloc(desc, 100 * sizeof(char));
	if(desc == NULL)
	{
		fprintf(stderr, "Error - unable to allocate required memory\n");
	}
	else
	{
		strcat(desc, "\nHe is getting strong idea about C Memory Management.");
	}
	printf("Name = %s\n", name );
	printf("Description: %s, %s\n", name, desc);
	free(desc);
	getch();
}

Here is the sample output of this C program:

On trying the above example without re-allocating extra memory and strcat() function will give an error due to lack of available memory in description

C Online Test

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