void pointer

[studentc]

I was wondering why do we have a void pointer being returned when we have the function

[code]
void *malloc(size_t number_of_byte)

why should it not return an integer/float/... pointer.

Also what is the difference between null and void) i thought they were the same. i mean in
int main(void), void means it takes in zero or null parameters, right?

[Prelude]

A pointer to void is C's generic pointer. Any pointer can be obtained from a pointer to void and vice versa (excepting function pointers). malloc returns a pointer to void because it can't know what type of pointer you really wanted, it only knows the byte count that you pass to it.

>Also what is the difference between null and void
void is a data type and null is a value. To be more precise, void is an incomplete type with an empty set of values that cannot be instantiated. Null can be confused for multiple things, but for the most part it means the value of an invalid pointer while still having a predictable and testable value.

>i mean in int main(void), void means it takes in zero or null parameters, right?
Yes.