C Malloc

C malloc

Created By: chatGPT

C's malloc (memory allocation) function is used to dynamically allocate memory during program execution. It is part of the C standard library and is declared in the <stdlib.h> header file. Memory allocated using malloc must be explicitly freed when no longer needed to prevent memory leaks. The function returns a pointer to the allocated memory, or NULL if the allocation fails. The size of the allocated memory is specified in bytes as an argument to malloc. Here’s a basic usage example:

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

int main() {
    int *array;
    int n, i;

    printf("Enter number of elements: ");
    scanf("%d", &n);

    // Dynamically allocate memory
    array = (int*)malloc(n * sizeof(int));

    if (array == NULL) {
        printf("Memory allocation failed\n");
        return 1;
    }

    // Initialize and display array elements
    for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        array[i] = i + 1; // Assigning values
        printf("Element[%d]: %d\n", i, array[i]);
    }

    // Free the allocated memory
    free(array);
    return 0;
}

In the example above, we request the user for the number of elements for an array. Then, we call malloc to allocate enough memory to hold n integers. We check if malloc returned NULL, which indicates a failure to allocate memory. If successful, we can use the allocated memory as an array and later free it using the free function, ensuring to manage memory responsibly.

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

int main() {
    // Sample function to show malloc usage
    void *ptr;
    ptr = malloc(10 * sizeof(int)); // Allocates memory for 10 integers
    if (ptr == NULL) {
        printf("Allocation failed\n");
        return -1;
    }

    // Usage of the allocated memory...

    free(ptr); // Free the allocated memory
    return 0;
}