On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 12:06 AM, Rick <[email protected]> wrote: > At 5/5/2009 01:37 AM, you wrote: >>[mod-- That isn't a C or C++ statement. At best it's an expression. >>What does your reference manual say malloc does? --mod PN] >> >>hi, >> malloc(64) >> >> what will this statement do? >> >> allocate a memory space of 64bytes?? >> >> please reply > > Assuming your compiler does not flag this, it will likely give you a > huge headache. > > Sure, you are allocating 64 bytes of memory, but you aren't assigning > a pointer to point to it. So you can never free it -- or even use it > for that matter. > > What is your point?
It looks like a badly phrased question of "How does malloc work?" as opposed to "What does malloc (in general) do?" How malloc works differs from compiler to compiler, one method is described here: <http://g.oswego.edu/dl/html/malloc.html> though there are other ways. Google for [malloc algorihms] for other potential methods. Note that to use it, you don't need to know how it works (indeed, if you've just started learning, it's usually a bad thing since you may end up relying on behaviour of your your particular implementation that doesn't exist in other implementations - treat it as the black box that's described in your compiler's documentation.) -- PJH http://shabbleland.myminicity.com/com http://www.chavgangs.com/register.php?referer=9375
