Need some memory help

[socket]

I think I'm a little confused.
Could someone please shed some light on memory allocation.

Basically I would like to create a variable that can hold any amount of bytes.
I do not know how many bytes I will receive into that variable.
How would I create a variable with no limits to size?

Thank you

[matsp]

Short answer: You can't.

You can allocate a set amount of memory with malloc(), and then use realloc() to extend it [as long as there is sufficient memory in the system].

This should be done in increments of something bigger than one (because realloc() will have to copy the data when you grow it, so the "cost" of copying large amounts of data that is growing by small amounts is quite noticable) - doubling the size each time you expand it is a good plan.

Starting at a decent size is of course a good idea.

--
Mats

[ssharish2005]

Basically I would like to create a variable that can hold any amount of bytes.

Create char pointer variable and allocate on byte and keep on reallocating one byte when every need. But eventually when the char pointer had gone big the realloc will suffere allocating extra bytes.

ssharish

[Elysia]

As pointed out above, reallocating with only one byte every time is very inefficient. Make a larger initial buffer and double it every time you need more. Remember: we have memory a plenty in today's computers, so you don't need to be cheap.

[robatino]

If you're talking about an arbitrary-precision number, the magic phrase is "arbitrary-precision arithmetic". For C, a good package for this is GMP. Don't try to implement this yourself if you can help it since doing it efficiently requires machine-specific code.

http://gmplib.org/

[cs05pp2]

type x = (type *) malloc(sizeof(type));

sizeof(type) counts the size of the variable for example

(int*)malloc(sizeof(int))

get 4bytes mem

[robwhit]

(int*)malloc(sizeof(int))

get 4bytes mem

only on some systems.

[dwks]

Not to mention that casting malloc() is best avoided.

But cs05pp2 is right in that it's best to use sizeof() for memory allocation instead of hard-coded values like 4 -- except for allocating characters, because sizeof(char) is always one. In other words, to allocate 4 characters, you can just use 4 rather than 4 * sizeof(char).

It's also not a bad idea to use sizeof(*variable) rather than sizeof(type), in case you change the type of the variable.

type x = (type *) malloc(sizeof(type));

Presumably you meant

type *x = (type *) malloc(sizeof(type));

Anyway, my suggestion is

type *p = malloc(sizeof(*p));