C Programming Practice Test: Dynamic Memory Allocation — Flashcards

Quiz questions on static and dynamic memory allocation, dma functions, memory leak and dangling pointers.

Dynamic memory allocation is a fundamental concept in C programming that allows programmers to allocate and deallocate memory while a program is running. This is in contrast to static memory allocation, which occurs at compile time and is fixed for the duration of the program's execution.
Dynamic memory allocation is achieved through the use of the following functions defined in the stdlib.h header:
malloc(): Allocates a block of memory of the specified size in bytes and returns a pointer to the first byte of the allocated memory.
calloc(): Similar to malloc(), but initializes the allocated memory to zero.
realloc(): Resizes a previously allocated block of memory.
free(): Deallocates a block of memory previously allocated by malloc(), calloc(), or realloc().
To use dynamic memory allocation, you must first include the stdlib.h header file in their program. Then, you can use the malloc() function to allocate a block of memory of the desired size. The malloc() function returns a pointer to the first byte of the allocated memory. This pointer can then be used to access and manipulate the allocated memory.
Once the allocated memory is no longer needed, it must be deallocated using the free() function. This prevents the program from leaking memory.