std::malloc

C++

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Language support library

Concepts library (C++20)

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Strings library

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Regular expressions library (C++11)

Atomic operations library (C++11)

Thread support library (C++11)

Filesystem library (C++17)

Technical Specifications

Utilities library

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initializer_list (C++11)
bitset
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rel_ops::operator!=rel_ops::operator>rel_ops::operator<=rel_ops::operator>=
Comparisons (C++20)
strong_order weak_order partial_order strong_equal weak_equal	strong_ordering weak_ordering partial_ordering strong_equality weak_equality	is_eqis_neqis_ltis_lteqis_gtis_gteq
common_comparison_category
Common vocabulary types
pair tuple (C++11) apply (C++17) make_from_tuple (C++17)	optional (C++17) any (C++17) variant (C++17)
Swap, forward and move
swap
exchange (C++14)
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Dynamic memory management

Smart pointers unique_ptr (C++11) shared_ptr (C++11) weak_ptr (C++11) auto_ptr (until C++17) owner_less (C++11) enable_shared_from_this (C++11) bad_weak_ptr (C++11) default_delete (C++11) Allocators allocator allocator_traits (C++11) allocator_arg_t (C++11) allocator_arg (C++11) uses_allocator (C++11) scoped_allocator_adaptor (C++11) pmr::polymorphic_allocator (C++17) Memory resources pmr::memory_resource (C++17) pmr::get_default_resource (C++17) pmr::set_default_resource (C++17) pmr::new_delete_resource (C++17) pmr::null_memory_resource (C++17) pmr::synchronized_pool_resource (C++17) pmr::unsynchronized_pool_resource (C++17) pmr::monotonic_buffer_resource (C++17) pmr::pool_options (C++17)

Uninitialized storage uninitialized_copy uninitialized_fill uninitialized_move (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct (C++17) destroy (C++17) uninitialized_copy_n (C++11) uninitialized_fill_n uninitialized_move_n (C++17) uninitialized_default_construct_n (C++17) uninitialized_value_construct_n (C++17) destroy_n (C++17) destroy_at (C++17) raw_storage_iterator (until C++20) get_temporary_buffer (until C++20) return_temporary_buffer (until C++20) Garbage collection support declare_reachable (C++11) undeclare_reachable (C++11) declare_no_pointers (C++11) undeclare_no_pointers (C++11) pointer_safety (C++11) get_pointer_safety (C++11) Miscellaneous pointer_traits (C++11) to_address (C++20) addressof (C++11) align (C++11) C Library malloc aligned_alloc (C++17) calloc realloc free Low level memory management

Defined in header <cstdlib>
void* malloc( std::size_t size );

Allocates size bytes of uninitialized storage.

If allocation succeeds, returns a pointer to the lowest (first) byte in the allocated memory block that is suitably aligned for any scalar type.

If size is zero, the behavior is implementation defined (null pointer may be returned, or some non-null pointer may be returned that may not be used to access storage, but has to be passed to std::free)

The following functions are required to be thread-safe: The library versions of operator new and operator delete User replacement versions of global operator new and operator delete std::calloc, std::malloc, std::realloc, std::aligned_alloc (since C++17), std::free Calls to these functions that allocate or deallocate a particular unit of storage occur in a single total order, and each such deallocation call happens-before the next allocation (if any) in this order.

(since C++11)

Parameters

size

-

number of bytes to allocate

Return value

On success, returns the pointer to the beginning of newly allocated memory. To avoid a memory leak, the returned pointer must be deallocated with std::free() or std::realloc().

On failure, returns a null pointer.

Notes

This function does not call constructors or initialize memory in any way. There are no ready-to-use smart pointers that could guarantee that the matching deallocation function is called. The preferred method of memory allocation in C++ is using RAII-ready functions std::make_unique, std::make_shared, container constructors, etc, and, in low-level library code, new-expression.

Example

Run this code

#include <iostream>   
#include <cstdlib> 
#include <string>

int main() 
{
    // allocates enough for an array of 4 strings
    if(auto p = (std::string*)std::malloc(4 * sizeof(std::string)))
    {
        int i = 0;
        try
        {
            for(; i != 4; ++i) // populate the array
                new(p + i) std::string(5, 'a' + i);

            for(int j = 0; j != 4; ++j) // print it back out
                std::cout << "p[" << j << "] == " << p[j] << '\n';
        }
        catch(...) {}

        for(; i != 0; --i) // clean up
            p[i - 1].~basic_string();

        std::free(p);
    }
}

Output:

p[0] == aaaaa
p[1] == bbbbb
p[2] == ccccc
p[3] == ddddd

See also

operator newoperator new[]	allocation functions (function)
get_temporary_buffer (deprecated in C++17)(removed in C++20)	obtains uninitialized storage (function template)