Help with some syntax

Hello, I have not been programming for very long at all, I've been working my way through a book, reading stuff online and making some simple programs. I recently learned about malloc and I understand how to use it and why it is useful but some of the syntax has left me confused. Here is a line from a malloc() example program:

Code:

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ptr_one = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int));

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What does (int *) do here, what does it mean? I have seen it used in several examples of malloc.
Thank you

In C++, this is a required syntax to tell the compiler that you want to convert the result from malloc, which is (void *) into (int *). In C, we normally write it like this

Code:

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int *ptr_one = malloc(sizeof(int));

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;

The compiler will automatically convert the right-hand side (void*) to the type of the left-hand side (int*). The type (int*) means pointer to int. The type (void*) basically means pointer to "something", where "something" is to be determined by the programmer.

EDIT: you will also see the above line written this way

Code:

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int *ptr = malloc(n * sizeof(*ptr));

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This will allocate n items, each of the appropriate size (for example, int). This way if you later change the type, you need only change one word, example to allocate n doubles:

Code:

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double *ptr = malloc(n * sizeof(*ptr));

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Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! :)