C Programming Absolute Beginner’s Guide, Third Edition

26. Maximizing Your Computer’s Memory

In This Chapter

• Thinking of the heap

• Understanding why you need the heap

• Allocating the heap

• Taking action if there’s not enough heap memory

• Freeing heap memory

• Handling multiple allocations

Absolute beginners to C aren’t the only ones who might find this chapter’s concepts confusing at first. Even advanced C programmers get mixed up when dealing with the heap. The heap is the collection of unused memory in your computer. The memory left over—after your program, your program’s variables, and your operating system’s workspace—comprises your computer’s available heap space, as Figure 26.1 shows.

FIGURE 26.1 The heap is unused memory.

Many times you’ll want access to the heap, because your program ...