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Programming languages - C Programming

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Lesson Description


Lession - #27 C Memory Management

The C programming language provides several functions for memory allocation and management. These functions can be found in the <stdlib.h> header file.
Sr.No. Function & Description
1 void *calloc(int num, int size>
;
This function allocates an array of num elements each of which size in bytes will be size.
2 void free(void *address>
;
This function releases a block of memory block specified by address.
3 void *malloc(size_t size>
;
This function allocates an array of num bytes and leave them uninitialized.
4 void *realloc(void *address, int newsize>
;
This function re-allocates memory extending it upto newsize.

Allocating Memory Dynamically

While programming, if you are aware of the size of an array, then it is easy and you can define it as an array. For example, to store a name of any person, it can go up to a maximum of 100 characters, so you can define something as follows −
char name[100];
But now let us consider a situation where you have no idea about the length of the text you need to store, for example, you want to store a detailed description about a topic. Here we need to define a pointer to character without defining how much memory is required and later, based on requirement, we can allocate memory as shown in the below example −
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(>
 {

   char name[100];
   char *description;

   strcpy(name, "Zara Ali">
;

   /* allocate memory dynamically */
   description = malloc( 200 * sizeof(char>
 >
;
    
   if( description == NULL >
 {
      fprintf(stderr, "Error - unable to allocate required memory\n">
;
   } else {
      strcpy( description, "Zara ali a DPS student in class 10th">
;
   }
   
   printf("Name = %s\n", name >
;
   printf("Description: %s\n", description >
;
}
When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result.
Name = Zara Ali
Description: Zara ali a DPS student in class 10th
Same program can be written using calloc(>
; only thing is you need to replace malloc with calloc as follows −
calloc(200, sizeof(char>
>
;
So you have complete control and you can pass any size value while allocating memory, unlike arrays where once the size defined, you cannot change it.

C Recursion C Command Line Arguments