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How does the realloc function work... Does it allocate sequence of extra mamory bloack to the existing one or does it create a complete new block and transfer the contents from the old block.. Isnt it an expensive call... Because i saw a code wherer the array started witgh the size 1 and for every char input the array was being reallocated with an extra block.. isnt this inefficient.
your thoughts??
>Does it allocate sequence of extra mamory bloack to the existing one
When possible.
>or does it create a complete new block and transfer the contents from the old block
When necessary, but only when the size increases.
>Isnt it an expensive call
Dynamic allocation is expensive in general.
>isnt this inefficient
Yes, very. That's a naive way to implement a dynamic data structure.
> When necessary, but only when the size increases.
The draft C99 makes no such statement.
You must always assume that it doesQuote:
[#2] The realloc function deallocates the old object pointed
to by ptr and returns a pointer to a new object that has the
size specified by size. The contents of the new object
shall be the same as that of the old object prior to
deallocation, up to the lesser of the new and old sizes.
Any bytes in the new object beyond the size of the old
object have indeterminate values.
- allocate new
- copy lesser of old and new sizes
- deallocate old
In malloc memory managers which use a pooled architecture, making the block smaller can change the pool in which it should be in, then it will also move.
It is an implementation specific optimisation which leaves it in place.
I was talking to one of my instructors (the one that actually knows the stuff) and one of the tips he gave me was to double the size of allocation everytime.
So say I started off with 8 bytes and fill it up, on the realloc get 16, once that fills up get 32, etc.
Seems like a more efficent method then just getting exactly what you need.
so lets say i have a pointer
char *ptr;
chat *ptr1;
ptr=mallcok and stuff
ptr1=ptr;
ptr=realloc and stuff...
The accordingly it is possible that ptr1 is no longer pointing to the actual location of the data.. Am i right???
>Am i right???
Yes.
The best policy is not to deal in piddly amounts. If you think you'll need up to 20KB of memory, allocate the lot rather than starting at 50 bytes and using 100 calls to realloc.
And use the stack for anything less than a few kilobytes of memory.