C dynamic memory allocation

"Malloc" redirects here. For Mallock, see Mallock.

C standard library (libc)
General topics
Miscellaneous headers

C dynamic memory allocation refers to performing manual memory management for dynamic memory allocation in the C programming language via a group of functions in the C standard library, namely malloc, realloc, calloc, aligned_alloc and free.[1][2][3]

The C++ programming language includes these functions; however, the operators new and delete provide similar functionality and are recommended by that language's authors.[4] Still, there are several situations in which using new/delete is not applicable, such as garbage collection code or performance-sensitive code, and a combination of malloc and placement new may be required instead of the higher-level new operator.

Many different implementations of the actual memory allocation mechanism, used by malloc, are available. Their performance varies in both execution time and required memory.

  1. ^ 7.20.3 Memory management functions (PDF). ISO/IEC 9899:1999 specification (Technical report). p. 313.
  2. ^ Summit, Steve. "Chapter 11: Memory Allocation". C Programming Notes. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  3. ^ "aligned_alloc(3) - Linux man page".
  4. ^ Stroustrup, Bjarne (2008). Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++. Addison Wesley. p. 1009. ISBN 978-0-321-54372-1.