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I have question about pointers in C. Each pointer has 4 bytes in memory (address). When I call malloc() it only allocates memory and put it's address to the pointer, also free() only frees the memory that pointer is pointing to. But how can I delete pointer (4 bytes) in memory that I no longer need ? Isn't there a memory leak ?
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It is safe to free a null pointer. The C Standard specifies that free(NULL) has no effect: The free function causes the space pointed to by ptr to be deallocated, that is, made available for further allocation.
delete and free() in C++ In C++, the delete operator should only be used either for the pointers pointing to the memory allocated using new operator or for a NULL pointer, and free() should only be used either for the pointers pointing to the memory allocated using malloc() or for a NULL pointer.
The free() function is used in C++ to de-allocate the memory dynamically. It is basically a library function used in C++, and it is defined in stdlib. h header file. This library function is used when the pointers either pointing to the memory allocated using malloc() function or Null pointer.
The pointer itself is a regular variable, which means that when it goes out of scope those 4 bytes allocated for it will automatically be freed, just like any other variable you might have declared on that same scope.
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