COMP2113 Programming Technologies / ENGG1340 Computer Programming II

Module 10. C programming (Part 3) – Memory allocation and struct

Objectives
At the end of this self-learning lab, you should be able to:
 Know how to perform dynamic memory allocation in a C program.
 Know how to use struct to model an object in a C program.

Section 1. Dynamic memory allocation

 In C++, we perform dynamic memory allocation with the new operator.

 C does not provide the new operator .
 Instead, it uses the following malloc() function.

 The input parameter int size of the malloc() function specifies the number of bytes
of memory required.
 Note that the function returns void *, which means that malloc()returns a pointer to
the space allocated (the pointer is not defined as particular data type), or returns null if
the memory allocation fails.
 We need to include the stdlib library to use malloc(), free(), and NULL.

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 Let’s browse to /module10/
$ cd module10
 Consider memory1.c as an illustration.
$ vi memory1.c

Code explanations:
 Define a as a pointer to an integer (for pointing to the newly allocated memory in the next
line).
 Request memory for storing “size” number of integers.
o sizeof(int) function returns the number of bytes required by each int.
o Therefore “size * sizeof(int) ” returns the number of bytes required to store
“size” number of integers.
o malloc() then allocates memory for storing “size” number of integers, and returns
a pointer to the newly allocated memory.
o Since the pointer is of the type void, we use (int*) to cast the void pointer to the
integer type pointer, so that we can assign it to the integer pointer a.
o Please note that this is a standard way to request for memory in C program. The same
format applies for requesting memory for double, char, and even user defined struct.

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 Let’s try to compile the program and run it.
$ gcc -std=c99 memory1.c –o memory1
$ ./memory1
How many slots in the array?10
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
$ ./memory1
How many slots in the array?20
20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Release memory
 We can release the memory obtained through malloc() by free().

 We should ensure that the pointer value passed to free() is the value returned
through a malloc() function.
 For example, the following code requested 10 array slots and release the 10 array
slots.

 Freeing memory not allocated by malloc() will cause a runtime error.

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Section 2. struct and typedef

 C does not have classes.

 To group a number of items into a new type, C uses structs.
 There is no access control with structs. All members are public and can be
accessed anywhere in the program.
 structs cannot have member functions.
 structs do not have constructor or destructor. Hence, if we want to initialize an
object of a struct, we need to define a function for initializing the object.
 In summary, a struct is simply a group of data and is not designed to support
object-oriented programming.
 Consider the file struct1.c
$ vi struct1.c

Code explanations:
 Define a student structure, the syntax is the same as C++, note that we have a semi
colon after the definition of the structure.
 Create a student object.
o To create an object of the struct, note that we need to repeat the struct keyword
before the name student.
o This is required by the C syntax. If we do not want to repeat the struct keyword
every time we create an object, we can define Student to be a type using typedef.
 Let’s try to compile the program and run it.
$ gcc struct1.c –o struct1
$ ./struct1
Kit has uid 2012111111.

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 The use of typedef

 typedef defines an alias, it is simply shorthand for programmers.

 Consider the following typedef example.

 The typedef keyword creates an alias, instructing the compiler to treat “Student”
as “struct student”.
 Therefore, we can simply use “Student a” to create a student object because
“Student a;” equals to “struct student a;”. This is a more intuitive way to
construct a Student object.
 Consider the following example:
$ vi typedef.c

Code explanations:
 Define an alias: Student = “struct student”
 When the compiler reads Student a, it considers it as struct student a.
 Let’s try to compile the program and run it.
$ gcc typedef.c –o typedef
$ ./typedef
Kit has uid 2012111111.

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Checkpoint 10.3 (Please submit your answer to Moodle.)

 Let’s create an application that stores an array of Employee structures in C.

 Each Employee object should contain the following information:
1. Name
2. Position
3. Salary

 Let’s create a new blank file called employee.c

$ vi employee.c
 Task 1. Include the necessary libraries. There are three libraries required
#include<stdio.h>
#include<???>
#include<???>
o #include<stdio.h> for handling input and output ( printf() and
scanf() ).
o #include<???> for handling C-string (e.g., strcpy() )
o #include<???> for handling dynamic memory allocation (e.g., malloc(),
free(), NULL)
 Task 2. Define the Employee structure
struct Employee{
// Three lines of codes here...
};
o We need to use char array to store the Name and Position of each Employee.
Let’s initialize the array size as 100 slots.
o Let’s use int type variable to store the Salary.
o Please don’t miss the semi-colon after the definition of the Employee structure
.
 Task 3. Define an alias for “struct Employee”
typedef ???;
o We do not want to type “struct Employee” everytime we create an
Employee object or pointer to an Employee object.
o Let’s make “Employee” as an alias of “struct Employee”. Note that it is
also possible to have the alias name the same as the structure name .

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 Task 4. Define a function for setting the value of the member variables of an
Employee object.
o As C does not support class, we cannot define member function for Employee,
let’s make setEmployee() as a general function.
void setEmployee(char n[], char p[] , int sal, ???){
// 3 lines of codes here
}
o The first 3 parameters are passing by value, n, p and sal contains the
values of the Name, Position and Salary of the Employee e.
o The 4th parameter has to pass by reference; we are passing the address of an
Employee object into this function, so the input parameter should be a
pointer to an Employee object.
Employee *e
o 1st line of code - Copy the value in char array n into the Name of the
Employee object e.
strcpy(??? , n);
o Hints: Same as C++, since e is a pointer, when accessing the member
variable of the object pointed to by the pointer e, we can use the “->”
operator.
o 2nd line of code - Copy the value in char array p into the Position of the
Employee object e.
strcpy(??? , p);
o 3rd line of code – Assign the value of sal to the Salary of the Employee
object e.
e->Salary = sal;

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 Task 5. Define a function printing the information of an Employee object.
void showInfo(Employee e){
// 3 lines of code here ...
}
o Note that we are passing the Employee object e by value, because we do not
need to update the input object e. We just need to access its member variables
and print it on screen.
o 1st line of code – print the Name of the Employee e.
printf("Name: %s\n", e.Name);
 Note that as e is not a pointer in the showInfo() function, we can simply
access the member variables of e by using member access operator “.” (a
dot).
 e.Name is a char array, so we use the %s conversion specifier.

o 2nd line of code – print the Position of the Employee e.

o 3rd line of code - print the Salary of the Employee e. Note that e.Salary is
an integer value. Please use the right conversion specifier to display the integer
value in the string literal.

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 Task 6. In the main() function, read in user input.
int main(){
// More code here...
}
o The first input is an integer that tells the number of employee in the company.
int numOfEmployee;
scanf( ??? , ???);
 Note that we need to provide the conversion specifier to indicate that
we are reading an integer value.
 Remember to pass in the “address of” variable numOfEmployee to
the scanf() function. (We pass numOfEmployee by reference so
that scanf() can update the value of numOfEmployee).
 Task 7. Create an array of Employee with numOfEmployee number of slots.
Employee *e;
e = (???) malloc ( ??? * sizeof( ??? ));
 Task 8. Use a for loop to read in all Employee information from user input.
char n[100], p[100];
int sal;
for (int i = 0 ; i < numOfEmployee ; i++){
scanf("%s%s%d",n,p,&sal);
setEmployee( ??? , ??? , ??? , ???);
}
o scanf("%s%s%d",n,p,&sal);
 Reminded that since n and p are array of char, we do not need the
“address-of” operator to retrieve their address, because they are already
pointer storing the address to the first slot of the char array.
 On the other hand, sal is a normal int type variable, we need to use &sal
to pass in the address of sal to the scanf() function.
o What are the four parameters in the setEmployee() function?
 Note that the 4th parameter of setEmployee() is requiring an address value
(because it is pass by reference). We need to provide the address of the i-th
slot of the Employee array e.
 Therefore we can use either one of the method below, we can pass the address
of the i-th slot of the array.
setEmployee( n , p , sal , &e[i]);
 Or we can simply pass in the value of the pointer pointing to e+i.
setEmployee( n , p , sal , e+i);

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  Task 9. Use a for loop to print the information of each Employee.
for (int i = 0 ; i <numOfEmployee ; i++){
showInfo( ??? );
}
o Note that we are simply pass an Employee object by value, so we can simply
pass in the i-th slot of the Employee array e to the showInfo() function.
showInfo( e[i] );

 Task 10. Finally, free the memory we requested.

free(e);
o This will release the memory of the entire array pointed to by e that we have
requested through malloc().

 Let’s try to compile the program and run it.

$ gcc –std=c99 employee.c –o employee
$ ./employee < input.txt
Name: Kit
Position: Lecturer
Salary: 20000
Name: Ben
Position: Professor
Salary: 30000
Name: Chim
Position: Lecturer
Salary: 15000

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Section 3. struct constructors

Talking about struct, let us introduce to you one more concept – constructor. The concept of
constructor is very important for class. You will learn more details in COMP2396
Object-oriented Programming and Java.

struct constructors are a feature of C++ (but NOT C) that make

initialization of structures convenient. Within a structure type
definition, define a constructor in a way that is similar to a function
definition, with the following differences.
 The name of the constructor must be the same as the name of
the structure type.
 Do not write a return type. The definition starts with the name
of the constructor.
 In the body of the constructor, refer to the fields by their names.
Do not use a dot. The fields are implicitly those of the structure
that is being initialized.

Example:
struct Student {
char* name;
char* id;
int age;
Student(char* nm, char* d, int a) {
name = nm;
id = d;
age = a;
}
};
This defines type Student with three fields and one constructor that takes three parameters.

You can use the constructor in three ways.

 Student s(“Tim”, “3035123456”, 20);
o This is equivalent to:
Student s;
s.name = “Tim”;
s.id = “3035123456”;
s.age = 20;

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  Student* s = new Student(“Tim”, “3035123456”, 20);
o The expression new Student(“Tim”, “3035123456”, 20) creates
a new cell in the heap and runs the constructor on that new cell, with the
given parameters. Its value is a pointer to the new cell.
 Student(“Tim”, “3035123456”, 20);
o To use this way, you have to write the following in your program:
Student s = Student(“Tim”, “3035123456”, 20);

which is equivalent to:

Student s(“Tim”, “3035123456”, 20);

A struct can have multiple constructors as follows:

struct Student {
char* name;
char* id;
int age;
Student(char* nm, char* d, int a) {
name = nm;
id = d;
age = a;
}
Student(char* nm, char* d) {
name = nm;
id = d;
}
Student(char* nm) {
name = nm;
}
};
We call this overloading (functions having the same name but different parameter lists). Again
you will learn more details in COMP2396 Object-oriented Programming and Java.

Once again, please be reminded that struct constructors are a feature of C++ but NOT C.
Recall that C++ extends C to include support for Object Oriented Programming and other
features that facilitate large software development projects.

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Dear Students,

Good job! You have finished 10 self-learning

modules in this course! Your effort and hard work are
highly appreciated .
Please feel free to contact us if you have any doubt
when following any of the 10 modules. We are very
happy to help you !
Wish you all superpass this course!!! Be confident!!! You are now a good
programmer and self-learner!!!

T.W. Chim

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