Program using dynamic memory allocation

Question

I have the below program in C. How did p[0][0] become 1? Can somebody help in understanding?

#include <stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

main()
{
  int i,j;
int **p=(int **)malloc(2 * sizeof(int *));
  p[0]=(int*) malloc(2*sizeof(int));
  p[1]=p[0];
  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
    for(j=0;j<2;j++)
     {
            p[i][j]=i+j;
            printf("%d,%d,%d",i,j,p[i][j]);
            printf("\n");
     }
 printf("%d,%d,%d",i,j,p[0][0]);
}

the output is as below

0,0,0
0,1,1
1,0,1
1,1,2
2,2,1

Note that casting results of malloc() family is considered as a bad practice. — MikeCAT
– MikeCAT, Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 15:58
You allocate 2-pointers, now you must allocate a block of 2-int for each pointer... — David C. Rankin
– David C. Rankin, Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 16:21
p[1] is p[0], so when you made the assignment p[1][0] = 1, that was equivalent to p[0][0] = 1. — William Pursell
– William Pursell, Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 17:53
OT: regarding: main() In C, there are only two valid signatures for main() They are: int main( void ) and int main( int argc, char *argv[] ) — user3629249
– user3629249, Commented Jun 12, 2021 at 13:32
OT: for ease of readability and understanding, please consistently indent the code. Indent after every opening brace '{'. Unindent before every closing brace '}'. Suggest each indent level be 4 spaces. — user3629249
– user3629249, Commented Jun 12, 2021 at 13:36

MikeCAT · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-11 15:57:32Z

3

The same pointer is assigned to p[0] and p[1]. This means p[0] and p[1] points at the same array. Therefore updates done via p[1] is also visible via p[0].

In the second iteration of outer for loop, 1 is assigned to p[1][0]. This makes p[0][0] to be 1.

answered Jun 11, 2021 at 15:57

MikeCAT

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Comments

John Bode · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-11 16:30:15Z

After the following lines of code:

int **p=(int **)malloc(2 * sizeof(int *));
p[0]=(int*) malloc(2*sizeof(int));
p[1]=p[0];

this is what you have in memory:

   int **        int *           int
   +---+         +---+           +---+
p: |   | ------> |   | p[0] -+-> |   | p[0][0], p[1][0]
   +---+         +---+       |   +---+
                 |   | p[1] -+   |   | p[0][1], p[1][1]
                 +---+           +---+

p[0] and p[1] point to the same 2-element array, so anything you write to p[0][i] is reflected in p[1][i] and vice-versa.

What you probably meant to do was something like

int **p = malloc( 2 * sizeof *p ); // cast not necessary, sizeof *p == sizeof (int *)
p[0] = malloc( 2 * sizeof *p[0] );
p[1] = malloc( 2 * sizeof *p[1] );

which would give you

   int **        int *            int 
   +---+         +---+            +---+
p: |   | ------> |   | p[0] ----> |   | p[0][0]
   +---+         +---+            +---+
                 |   | p[1] --+   |   | p[0][1]
                 +---+        |   +---+
                              |
                              |   +---+ 
                              +-> |   | p[1][0]
                                  +---+
                                  |   | p[1][1]
                                  +---+

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