Dynamic Arrays:
So
far, we created arrays at compile time. An array created at compile time by
specifying size in the source code has a fixed size and cannot be modified at
run time. The process of allocating memory at compile time is known as static memory
allocation and the arrays that receive static memory allocation are called
static arrays. This approach works fine as long as we know exactly what data
requirements are.
Consider a situation where we want
to use an array that can vary greatly in size. We must guess what will be the
largest size ever needed and create the array accordingly. A difficult task in
fact! Modern languages like C do not have this limitation. In C it I possible
to allocate memory at run time. This feature is known as dynamic memory
allocation and the arrays created at run time are called dynamic arrays.
Dynamic arrays are created using
what are known as pointer variables and memory management functions malloc,
calloc and realloc. These functions are included in the header file
<stdlib.h>. The concept of dynamic arrays is used in creating and
manipulating data structures such as linked list, stacks and queues.
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