Lecture 13: Dynamic memory allocation

Dynamic memory allocation

Review of type casting video

Dynamic memory allocation video

Optional reading: chapter 2.5 (for type casting); 13.1-13.2

Key ideas:

• Type casting: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/cprogramming/c_type_casting.htm
• Creating pointers and allocating memory using calloc or malloc
• Freeing memory using free

Debugging dynamic memory with Valgrind

Take a look at this video.

Valgrind is already installed on the server. A file containing the test1 function from the video is located at /public/examples/valgrind/val_test.c on the server. If you copy it and compile with gcc -o val_test -Wall -g val_test.c, you can run valgrind on it with valgrind ./val_test and see the same errors from the video. Then make the corrections from the video, recompile, and rerun valgrind ./val_test to see that the errors have been resolved.