free


function
<cstdlib> 
void free ( void * ptr );

Deallocate space in memory

A block of memory previously allocated using a call to malloc, calloc or realloc is deallocated, making it available again for further allocations.

Notice that this function leaves the value of ptr unchanged, hence it still points to the same (now invalid) location, and not to the null pointer.

Parameters

ptr
Pointer to a memory block previously allocated with malloc, calloc or realloc to be deallocated.
If a null pointer is passed as argument, no action occurs.


Return Value

(none)

Example

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/* free example */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main ()
{
  int * buffer1, * buffer2, * buffer3;
  buffer1 = (int*) malloc (100*sizeof(int));
  buffer2 = (int*) calloc (100,sizeof(int));
  buffer3 = (int*) realloc (buffer2,500*sizeof(int));
  free (buffer1);
  free (buffer3);
  return 0;
}


This program has no output. Just demonstrates some ways to allocate and free dynamic memory using the cstdlib functions.

See also

malloc Allocate memory block (function)
calloc Allocate space for array in memory (function)
realloc Reallocate memory block (function)