Define the term heap in brief

Question

Define the term heap in brief.

Answer 1

Heap:

It is use where malloc(), realloc() and calloc() acquire memory.

Acquiring memory from the heap is much slower than finding this from the stack. Conversely, the heap is much further flexible than the stack. There memory can be allocated at any instance and de-allocated within any order.

This memory is not deallocated automatically; so you should call free().

Recursive data structures are always almost implemented along with memory from the heap. Strings frequently come from there as well, especially strings which could be very long at runtime. Whenever you can maintain data within a local variable (as well as allocate this from the stack), so your code will run quicker than when you put the data upon the heap. Occasionally you can employ a better algorithm when you use the heap quicker, or tougher, or say more flexible. It is a tradeoff.

When memory is allocated from the heap, it’s obtainable till the program ends. That is, great if you keep in mind to deallocate this when you're completed. If you forget, it's a problem. A memory leak is some allocated memory which is no longer required but isn't deallocated. When you have a memory leak within a loop, you can utilize up all the memory upon the heap and not be capable to get any more. (While that occurs, the allocation functions return a null pointer.) In several environments, when a program doesn't deallocate everything this allocated, memory stays unavailable still after the program ends.