malloc

Allocates a block of memory.

void *malloc( size_t num_bytes); 

Return Values

Returns a void type pointer to the allocated space. If the system could not allocate the requested block of memory or if num_bytes is 0, returns a NULL pointer.

You must free the memory when you are finished with it: free(bufferPointer);

If you try to create a local variable that is too large or if the total size of the local variables is to large, the C interpreter throws an error "Too many local variables" instead of indicating that the buffer is too large. For example, this is an error: char buffer[4096*8];.

To allocate large buffers, use malloc instead of declaring the buffer as a local variable.</p>

For malloc details, refer to your C language documentation.

Example

The following example uses malloc to allocate a buffer of length 1024.

#include <malloc.h>
    char * buf;
    if ((buf = (char *)malloc(1024 * sizeof(char))) == NULL) {
        lr_output_message ("Insufficient memory available");
        return -1;
    }

    lr_output_message ("Memory allocated . Buffer address = %.8x", buf);

    // Do something with the buffer here ...

    // Now free the buffer

    free(buf);

Example: Output:
Action.c(11): Memory allocated. Buffer address = 007b9d88