Editing C dynamic memory allocation (section)

==Overview of functions==
The C dynamic memory allocation functions are defined in <code>stdlib.h</code> header (<code>cstdlib</code> header in C++).<ref name="c99" />

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Function
! Description
|-
| {{anchor|malloc}}{{cpp|malloc}}
| allocates the specified number of bytes
|-
| {{anchor|aligned_alloc}}{{cpp|aligned_alloc}}
| allocates the specified number of bytes at the specified alignment
|-
| {{anchor|realloc}}{{cpp|realloc}}
| increases or decreases the size of the specified block of memory, moving it if necessary
|-
| {{anchor|calloc}}{{cpp|calloc}}
| allocates the specified number of bytes and initializes them to zero
|-
| {{anchor|free}}{{cpp|free}}
| releases the specified block of memory back to the system
|}

===Differences between <code>malloc()</code> and <code>calloc()</code>===
* <code>malloc()</code> takes a single argument (the amount of memory to allocate in bytes), while <code>calloc()</code> takes two arguments &mdash; the number of elements and the size of each element.
* <code>malloc()</code> only allocates memory, while <code>calloc()</code> allocates and sets the bytes in the allocated region to zero.<ref>{{man|3|calloc|Linux}}</ref>