When do we need malloc????

When do we need malloc????
for example, I declare
char *str1;
char *str2;
str1="Testing string 1";
strcpy(str2,str1);
Can I do that???
or I need to have some memory for str2 by:
str2=(char*) malloc(strlen(str1)+1) ????
if no need to do that, when we need "malloc"??
Thx......

Actually, it might be nice to declare space for str1 also. Since this is the c++ board, why not use 'new' instead of 'malloc'

Code:

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char *str1 = "Testing string 1";  // atomatically reserves enough space
char str2;

str2 = new char[strlen( str1 ) + 1];

strcpy( str2, str1 );

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It's needed for run-time memory allocation.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Unregistered
It's needed for run-time memory allocation.

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I'm sorry..... What do u mean?

>>I'm sorry..... What do u mean?

It means creating memory on the fly..... You can allocate memory dynamically while your program runs.......If more is needed, malloc will provide more....

> I'm sorry..... What do u mean?

Static allocation:

int Array[10];

Memory for 10 elements are allocated, no more, no less, whatever happens in the program.
You must use a constant expression, so you cannot do like this:

int Array[Variable];

Dynamic allocation:

int* Array;
int NrOfElements;
cin >> NrOfElements;
Array=new int[NrOfElements];
...
delete[] Array;

The user can specify how much memory that should be allocated when running the program, not only when coding.
Just remember to remove the allocated memory with delete.

You have the NEW and DELETE operators for dynamic allocation. Check the compiler's doc for more info.

I thought you don't need malloc() unless you're using C.

malloc() is for C and new is for C++

then why are we discussing this in C++ forum instead of C forum?

Well, you can use malloc() in C++ if you want to. It's not really wrong...

C don't have 'new' and 'delete' , right?
I'm sorry to ask C instead of C++ here..... I don't know it since u guys said it's C.... but can u help me here for this question only? thx!!


I know there are new in C++..........
but when we need it??? As I don't know when there are Segmentation fault if not to use malloc, and I'm worry about memory leakage if forget free the memory.

Thanks!!~

I write a simple C program to explain how to use "malloc" and "free".

#include "stdlib.h"
#include "stdio.h"
#include "malloc.h"

void main( void )
{
char *string; /* dynamic length */

/* If you don't allocate (or not enough) any memory space for "string", you cannot assign any value to "string". Otherwise, the memory Segment may be crashed (uncertainty of when). */

string = malloc(1000);

if( string == NULL )
printf( "Insufficient memory available " );
else
{
printf( "Memory space allocated successfully " );

/* If "string" will not be used to perform other calculations, you should free it at once because "string" will hold the system recourse. If there are so many unfree memory segments, the system will be unstable due to less system resource available */

free( string );

printf( "Memory freed " );
}
}

Is that correct?? Can anyone helps?? thx!!

Quote:

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Originally posted by DramaKing
C don't have 'new' and 'delete' , right?
I'm sorry to ask C instead of C++ here..... I don't know it since u guys said it's C.... but can u help me here for this question only? thx!!


I know there are new in C++..........
but when we need it??? As I don't know when there are Segmentation fault if not to use malloc, and I'm worry about memory leakage if forget free the memory.

Thanks!!~

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Code:

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int main()
{
  int* Array; //Create pointer
  Array=new int[256]; //Allocate memory for 256 ints

  if(Array!=NULL) //Checks if allocation was successful, if not the pointer has the value NULL
  {

    //Whatever you want to do with the array...

    delete[] Array; //Deallocate memory, but only if it has been allocated first. Otherwise it might crash...
  }

  return 0;
}


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