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SPL – Practical Session 2

This practical session will cover the topics of memory management and pointers in C++. Learn about the different types of memory in a process, how to access memory addresses directly, and the benefits and drawbacks of using pointers. Discover how to work with pointer arithmetic, arrays, and dynamic memory allocation on the heap. Take caution with memory leaks and corruption, and learn safe practices for deleting pointers.

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SPL – Practical Session 2

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  1. SPL – Practical Session 2 • Topics: • C++ Memory Management • Pointers

  2. C++ Memory Handling Memory Model, Pointers

  3. Variables in C++ Memory System There are two "kinds" of memory available to a process: • Stack: • Stores local variables of the function. • Removed once the function ends! • Heap: • Contains dynamically allocated variables. • Stays once the function ends, unless cleared before! Read more: http://www.learncpp.com/cpp-tutorial/79-the-stack-and-the-heap/

  4. Pointers • A pointer is a variable that holds the address of some other variable. • In Java, you can’t directly access the memory of such object! Only by reference. • In C++, you can access them directly! Alter them any way you like, without any limitations! Benefit: More control than Java. Drawback: Memory leaks, Memory corruption. • A 64-bit computer can address 264bytes! • Each memory cell is 1 byte. (byte-accessible machines – most of the machines today) • Each pointer takes a static size of 4 bytes in a 32bit OS, and 8bytes in a 64bit OS. • Pointers themselves are saved on the stack.

  5. Java vs. C++ Java’s References C++ Pointers Have access to actual memory locations. Can point to anything! The null value in C++ is the number 0 (memory address 0). • String s = new String("a string"); • The value of the variable 's' is the location of the object on the heap, but we don’t have access to this value! • You can not have a variable that 'points' to a primitive type • String s = null; • means "I don't have the address of any meaningful data"

  6. Pointers – Bit Level ptr1 • Declaration: int x= 5 • int *ptr1 = &x; • integers are of size 4bytes, which means: x: • Char c = ‘z’; char *ptr2 = &c; (‘z’ equals to 122) • Char takes 1byte of memory: c: Decimal to binary conversion: http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-from-Decimal-to-Binary ASCII table: http://www.asciitable.com/ ptr2

  7. MEMORY ADDRESS SPACE Address 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 81344 81345 81346 81347 ... ... Pointers int x; int *foo; x= 123; foo = &x; foo 0 foo contains the address it points at. *foo is the value that foo points at. &x is the address of variable x. &foo is the address of the pointerfoo. x 1 2 3

  8. Comparing Pointers • int j = 5;  • int i = 5; • int *ptrj1 = &j;   • int *ptrj2 = &j;  • int *ptri = &i;   • True/False: • if (ptrj1 == ptrj2)  ? • if (ptrj1 == ptri)  ? • if (&ptrj1 == &ptrj2)  ? • if (*ptrj1 == *ptri) ?  True False False True

  9. Assigning a value to a dereferenced pointer A pointer must have a value before you can dereference it (follow the pointer). int *x; *x=3; int foo; int *x; x = &foo; *x=3; ERROR! Overrode the value located in some address! this is fine x points to foo

  10. Pointers to pointers x some int int *x; int **y; double *z; some *int y some int z some double

  11. Pointers to pointers • Example: • int i = 5;  • int *p_i = &i; • int **pp_i = &p_i;  •  Then: pp_i is memory location of …    p_i *pp_i is memory location of … i **pp_i equals…  5

  12. Pointers and Arrays • Array name is basically a const pointer pointing at the beginning of the array. • You can use the [] operator with pointers! • Example: • int A[5]; • Creates a memory block of 5 integers on the stack (5x4bytes) where A (the pointer) points at the beginning of the array -> A[0]. (A = &A) A

  13. Pointers and Arrays int *x; int a[5]={-1,-2,-3,-4,-5}; x = &a[2]; for (int i=0;i<3;i++) x[i]++; x is “the address of a[2] ” a x[i] is the same as a[i+2] x x[0] x[2] x[1]

  14. Pointer arithmetic • Integer math operations can be used with pointers: +, -, ++, --, +=, -= • If you increment a pointer, it will be increased by the size of whatever it points to. • Incrementing pointers will basically make it point to the “next” element in memory. int *ptr = a; *(ptr+2) *(ptr+4) *ptr a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4] int a[5];

  15. C++ char* • char* is another way to represent strings in C++. (it actually came first - with C!) • char* is an array of chars. • char* arrays are terminated with ‘\0’ – “null terminated strings”. “denotes end of string”. • char *msg= “RPI”; • Length of string? strlen(msg) == 3; msg null 'R‘ 'P‘ 'I‘ \0

  16. Using the Heap • All primitives are stored in the stack, • All that is made without new command is stored in the stack. (except global variables and initailized char* –splab!) • Using the new keyword, we can now allocate memory on the heap. • int *i = new int; • string *str = new string(“hi there, heap is cozy!”); • int *arr = new int[5]; • Deleting these objects can be done by using the delete keyword. • delete i; • delete str; • delete[] arr; Safe Delete: if (0 != p){ delete p; p=0; } DO NOT DELETE A PONTER NOT ALLOCATED BY NEW

  17. Pointer Pitfalls • Assigning values to uninitialized, null, or deleted pointers: int *p; int *p = NULL; int *p = new int; *p = 3; *p = 4; delete p; *p = 5; All of these cases end up with segmentation fault!

  18. Dangling Pointer • A pointer that points at nothing: • Example: int *p, *q; p = new int; q = p; delete q; *p = 3; //illegal assignment! • p and q point to the same location, q is deleted, results with p becoming a dangling pointer!

  19. Memory Leaks • Memory leak is when you remove the reference to the memory block, before deleting the block itself. Example: int *p = new int; p = NULL;//or a new other value p points at memory location of type int. p changed to point at null. Result? Must free memory block before changing reference. Memory leak!

  20.  A memory leak can diminish the performance of the computer by reducing the amount of available memory. • Eventually, in the worst case, too much of the available memory may become allocated • and all or part of the system or devices stops working correctly, the application fails, or the system slows down. Use valgrind with –leak-check=yes option if your implementation has memory leaks. Valgrind User Manual, The Valgrind Quick Start Guide, Graphical User Interfaces * This is why the –g flag is used when debugging!

  21. Before You Leave! • DO NOT FORGET TO SUBMIT: • Homework0 • Homework1 • Homework2 The Targilonim help your exercise the things we learnt so far! • READ COURSE ANNOUNCEMETNS! • Presentations: www.cs.bgu.ac.il/~jumanan

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