EAlloc()

Description

EAlloc() is used to allocate a new block of memory.

Call Signature

any ptr EAlloc ( identifier type_name, int elements )

Return Value

any ptr

Pointer to a block of memory.

Arguments

identifier type_name:

The name of the type of data to be allocated. This can be any basic type or user defined type. The identifier for the type is passed, not a string containing the name.

int elements:

The number of the above items to allocate.

Remarks

The resulting pointer may be assigned to a pointer variable. The newly allocated block of memory is not necessarily zeroed. The memory block is allocated with the C routine HMalloc().

Example

The following example allocates 200 integers and then zeros the array before using it. This code is approximately equivalent to a variable declaration of "local integer array[100]". Note that F$LEN() can be used to determine the size of an array, and that the type_name is just the type identifier, not a string.

 local integer ptr array, integer i
 array = EAlloc( int, 200 )
 for i = 1 to F$LEN(array)
    array[i] = 0
 endfor

See also

EFree()