malloc

free

#include <stdlib.h>void free(void *ptr);

The free( ) function returns the memory pointed to by ptr to the heap. This makes the memory available for future allocation.

It is imperative that free( ) only be called with a pointer that was previously allocated using one of the dynamic allocation system’s functions. Attempting to free an invalid pointer will most likely destroy the memory management mechanism and possibly cause a system crash. If you pass a null pointer, free( ) performs no operation.

Related functions are calloc( ), malloc( ), and realloc( ).