malloc() function in C

malloc():

• Allocate memory to structures dynamically.
• Allocated block address will be assigned to pointer type variable.
• The prototype is:

Why malloc() function returns void* type?

• Malloc() function can allocate memory to different types of structure types
• C developers provided a generic type(void*) pointer as return value after allocating memory to specified structure.
• We need to type cast the pointer to corresponding structure type.

• Malloc() function allocates size bytes memory and returns base address of memory block.
• It returns NULL pointer if the memory is not available.

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
struct Emp
{
	int id;
	char name[20];
	float salary;
};
int main()
{
	struct Emp *p;
	p = (struct Emp*)malloc(sizeof(struct Emp));
	
	if(p==NULL)
	{
		printf("Out of memory \n");
	}
	else
	{
		printf("Enter Emp details : \n");
		scanf("%d%s%f", &p->id, p->name, &p->salary);
		printf("Name : %s \n", p->name);
	}
    return 0;
}