Chapter 8: Memory Management – malloc, free, and You

Table of Contents

• Table of Contents
• 8.1 Dynamic Memory Allocation
• 8.2 Using malloc and free
• 8.3 Common Memory Issues
• 8.4 Exercises
• 8.5 Solutions
  • 8.5.1 Solution 1
  • 8.5.2 Solution 2
  • 8.5.3 Solution 3
• 8.6 What’s Coming in the Next Chapter

8.1 Dynamic Memory Allocation

Use malloc to allocate memory at runtime:

int *arr = (int *)malloc(5 * sizeof(int));

8.2 Using malloc and free

• Always free memory allocated with malloc.
• Check if malloc returns NULL.

8.3 Common Memory Issues

• Memory leaks
• Double free
• Dangling pointers

8.4 Exercises

1. Allocate an array of 10 integers using malloc.
2. Write a program that frees dynamically allocated memory.
3. What happens if you forget to free memory?

8.5 Solutions

8.5.1 Solution 1

int *arr = (int *)malloc(10 * sizeof(int));

8.5.2 Solution 2

free(arr);

8.5.3 Solution 3

Memory leaks occur, wasting system resources.

8.6 What’s Coming in the Next Chapter

Next, you’ll learn about structures and enums in C!

Next Chapter → Structures and Enums