Need some explanation about malloc

Question

I don't understand it prints out OneExample when i allocated memory for 5. I know it is possible to do it using strncpy But is there a way to do it without using strncpy

It works with strncpy, but is there a way to do it without strncpy ?

void main()
{

    char *a;

    a=(char*)malloc(5);

    a="OneExample";
    printf("%s",a);

    free(a);

}

It prints out OneExample

Should not it print OneE ?? Can someone explain ?

void main()
{

    char *a;

    a=(char*)malloc(5);

    a="OneExample";
    printf("%s",a);

    free(a);

}

Answer 1

You aren't using the memory you've allocated. After allocating the memory, you override the pointer a with a pointer to a string literal, causing a memory leak. The subsequent call to free may also crash your application since you're calling free on a pointer that was not allocated with malloc.

If you want to use the space you allocated, you could copy in to it (e..g, by using strncpy).