Dynamic Memory

Allocation

1
Problem with Arrays
 Sometimes
 Amount of data cannot be predicted beforehand
 Number of data items keeps changing during program
execution
 Example: Seach for an element in an array of N elements
 One solution: find the maximum possible value of N and
allocate an array of N elements
 Wasteful of memory space, as N may be much smaller
in some executions
 Example: maximum value of N may be 10,000, but a
particular run may need to search only among 100
elements
 Using array of size 10,000 always wastes memory
in most cases 2
Better Solution
 Dynamic memory allocation
 Know how much memory is needed after the program
is run
 Example: ask the user to enter from keyboard
 Dynamically allocate only the amount of memory
needed
 C provides functions to dynamically allocate
memory
 malloc, calloc, realloc

3
Memory Allocation Functions
 malloc
 Allocates requested number of bytes and returns a
pointer to the first byte of the allocated space
 calloc
 Allocates space for an array of elements, initializes
them to zero and then returns a pointer to the
memory.
 free
 Frees previously allocated space.
 realloc
 Modifies the size of previously allocated space.
 We will only do malloc and free
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Allocating a Block of Memory
 A block of memory can be allocated using the
function malloc
 Reserves a block of memory of specified size
and returns a pointer of type void
 The return pointer can be type-casted to any
pointer type
 General format:
type *p;
p = (type *) malloc (byte_size);

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Example
p = (int *) malloc(100 * sizeof(int));

 A memory space equivalent to 100 times

the size of an int bytes is reserved
 The address of the first byte of the
allocated memory is assigned to the
pointer p of type int
p

400 bytes of space 6

 Contd.
 cptr = (char *) malloc (20);

Allocates 20 bytes of space for the pointer cptr

of type char

 sptr = (struct stud *) malloc(10*sizeof(struct

stud));

Allocates space for a structure array of 10

elements. sptr points to a structure element of
type struct stud

Always use sizeof operator to find number of bytes for

a data type, as it can vary from machine to machine 7
Points to Note
 malloc always allocates a block of
contiguous bytes
 The allocation can fail if sufficient
contiguous memory space is not available
 If it fails, malloc returns NULL

if ((p = (int *) malloc(100 * sizeof(int))) == NULL)

{
printf (“\n Memory cannot be allocated”);
exit();
}
8
Using the malloc’d Array
 Once the memory is allocated, it can be used with
pointers, or with array notation
 Example:
int *p, n, i;
scanf(“%d”, &n);
p = (int *) malloc (n * sizeof(int));
for (i=0; i<n; ++i)
scanf(“%d”, &p[i]);

The n integers allocated can be accessed as *p, *(p+1),

*(p+2),…, *(p+n-1) or just as p[0], p[1], p[2], …,p[n-1]
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 Example
int main() printf("Input heights for %d
{ students \n",N);
int i,N; for (i=0; i<N; i++)
float *height; scanf ("%f", &height[i]);
float sum=0,avg;
for(i=0;i<N;i++)
printf("Input no. of students\n"); sum += height[i];
scanf("%d", &N);
avg = sum / (float) N;
height = (float *)
malloc(N * sizeof(float)); printf("Average height = %f \n",
avg);
free (height);
return 0;
}

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Releasing the Allocated Space:
free
 An allocated block can be returned to the
system for future use by using the free function
 General syntax:
free (ptr);
where ptr is a pointer to a memory block which
has been previously created using malloc
 Note that no size needs to be mentioned for the
allocated block, the system remembers it for
each pointer returned

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Can we allocate only arrays?
 malloc can be used to allocate memory for
single variables also
p = (int *) malloc (sizeof(int));
 Allocates space for a single int, which can be
accessed as *p
 Single variable allocations are just special
case of array allocations
 Array with only one element

12
malloc( )-ing array of structures
typedef struct{
char name[20];
int roll;
float SGPA[8], CGPA;
} person;
void main()
{
person *student;
int i,j,n;
scanf("%d", &n);
student = (person *)malloc(n*sizeof(person));
for (i=0; i<n; i++) {
scanf("%s", student[i].name);
scanf("%d", &student[i].roll);
for(j=0;j<8;j++) scanf("%f", &student[i].SGPA[j]);
scanf("%f", &student[i].CGPA);
}
} 13
 Static array of pointers
#define N 20
#define M 10
int main()
{
char word[N], *w[M];
int i, n;
scanf("%d",&n);
for (i=0; i<n; ++i) {
scanf("%s", word);
w[i] = (char *) malloc ((strlen(word)+1)*sizeof(char));
strcpy (w[i], word) ;
}
for (i=0; i<n; i++) printf("w[%d] = %s \n",i,w[i]);
return 0;
}

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 Static array of pointers
#define N 20 Output
#define M 10 4
int main() Tendulkar
{ Sourav
char word[N], *w[M]; Khan
int i, n; India
scanf("%d",&n); w[0] = Tendulkar
for (i=0; i<n; ++i) { w[1] = Sourav
scanf("%s", word); w[2] = Khan
w[i] = (char *) malloc ((strlen(word)+1)*sizeof(char)); w[3] = India
strcpy (w[i], word) ;
}
for (i=0; i<n; i++) printf("w[%d] = %s \n",i,w[i]);
return 0;
}

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How it will look like malloc()
w
0 T e n d u l k a r \0
1 S o u r a v \0

2 K h a n \0

3 I n d i a \0

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Pointers to Pointers
 Pointers are also variables (storing addresses),
so they have a memory location, so they also
have an address
 Pointer to pointer – stores the address of a
pointer variable

int x = 10, *p, **q;

p = &x;
q = &p;
printf(“%d %d %d”, x, *p, *(*q));

will print 10 10 10 (since *q = p)

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Allocating Pointer to Pointer
int **p;
p = (int **) malloc(3 * sizeof(int *));

p[0]
p int ** int *
p[1] int *
p[2] int *

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2D array
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
int **array;
array = (int**) malloc(nrows * sizeof(int *));

for(i = 0; i < nrows; i++)

{

array[i] = (int*)malloc(ncolumns * sizeof(int));

{
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2D array
Int main()
x 0
{ 1
2
x 3
*x;

*(x+1);

**(x+1); x[1][0]
*(x[3]+7) ???
9
*(*(x+1)+4)
} x[1][4]

*((*x)+8) x[0][8] 20
Dynamic Allocation of 2-d Arrays
 Recall that address of [i][j]-th element is found
by first finding the address of first element of i-
th row, then adding j to it
 Now think of a 2-d array of dimension [M][N]
as M 1-d arrays, each with N elements, such
that the starting address of the M arrays are
contiguous (so the starting address of k-th row
can be found by adding 1 to the starting
address of (k-1)-th row)
 This is done by allocating an array p of M
pointers, the pointer p[k] to store the starting
address of the k-th row 21
Contd.
 Now, allocate the M arrays, each of N
elements, with p[k] holding the pointer for
the k-th row array
 Now p can be subscripted and used as a
2-d array
 Address of p[i][j] = *(p+i) + j (note that
*(p+i) is a pointer itself, and p is a pointer
to a pointer)

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 Dynamic Allocation of 2-d Arrays
int **allocate (int h, int w)
{ void read_data (int **p, int h, int w)
int **p; Allocate array {
int i, j; of pointers int i, j;
for (i=0;i<h;i++)
p = (int **) malloc(h*sizeof (int *) ); for (j=0;j<w;j++)
for (i=0;i<h;i++) scanf ("%d", &p[i][j]);
p[i] = (int *) malloc(w * sizeof (int)); }
return(p);
} Allocate array of Elements accessed
integers for each like 2-D array elements.
row

23
 Contd.
void print_data (int **p, int h, int w) int main()
{ {
int i, j; int **p;
for (i=0;i<h;i++) int M, N;
{ printf ("Give M and N \n");
for (j=0;j<w;j++) scanf ("%d%d", &M, &N);
printf ("%5d ", p[i][j]); p = allocate (M, N);
printf ("\n"); read_data (p, M, N);
} printf ("\nThe array read as \n");
} print_data (p, M, N);
return 0;
}

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 Contd.
void print_data (int **p, int h, int w) int main()
{ {
int i, j; int **p;
for (i=0;i<h;i++) int M, N;
{ printf ("Give M and N \n");
for (j=0;j<w;j++) scanf ("%d%d", &M, &N);
printf ("%5d ", p[i][j]); p = allocate (M, N);
printf ("\n"); read_data (p, M, N);
Give M and N
} printf ("\nThe array read as \n");
33
} 123 print_data (p, M, N);
456 return 0;
789 }
The array read
as
1 2 3
4 5 6 25
 Memory Layout in Dynamic Allocation
int **allocate (int h, int w)
int main() {
{ int **p;
int **p; int i, j;
int M, N;
printf ("Give M and N \n"); p = (int **)malloc(h*sizeof (int *));
scanf ("%d%d", &M, &N); for (i=0; i<h; i++)
p = allocate (M, N); printf(“%10d”, &p[i]);
for (i=0;i<M;i++) { printf(“\n\n”);
for (j=0;j<N;j++) for (i=0;i<h;i++)
printf ("%10d", &p[i][j]); p[i] = (int
printf(“\n”); *)malloc(w*sizeof(int));
} return(p);
return 0; }
}
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Output
Starting address of each
row, contiguous (pointers
33 are 8 bytes long)
31535120 31535128 31535136

31535152 31535156 31535160

Elements in each
31535184 31535188 31535192 row are contiguous
31535216 31535220 31535224

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Passing pointers to function
Int main() void foo(int *a)
{ {
int x=5;
…………….. int m;
………….. m=*a;
5 1400
foo(&x); m=m+1;
x *a=m;
}
}
a 1400
&x=1400
*a

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 Call by value
Int main()
swap(int a, int b)
{
{
int x=10, y=5;
swap(x,y);
int temp;
temp=a;
a=b;
}
b=temp;

}
10 5
x y 10 5

a b

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 Call by Reference
Int main()
swap(int *a, int *b)
{
{
int x=10, y=5;
swap(&x,&y);
int temp;
temp=*a;
*a=*b;
}
*b=temp;

}
1400 10 5 1500 *b
x y
1400 1500
*a
a b 30