Pascal - Memory Management

This chapter explains dynamic memory management in Pascal. Pascal programming language provides several functions for memory allocation and management.

Allocating Memory Dynamically

While doing programming, if you are aware about the size of an array, then it is easy and you can define it as an array. For example, to store a name of any person, it can go max 100 characters so you can define something as follows −

var
name: array[1..100] of char;

But now, let us consider a situation, where you have no idea about the length of the text you need to store, for example, you want to store a detailed description about a topic. Here, we need to define a pointer to string without defining how much memory is required.

Pascal provides a procedure newto create pointer variables.

program exMemory;
var
name: array[1..100] of char;
description: ^string;

begin
   name:= 'Zara Ali';
   
   new(description);
      if not assigned(description) then
         writeln(' Error - unable to allocate required memory')
      else
         description^ := 'Zara ali a DPS student in class 10th';
   writeln('Name = ', name );
   writeln('Description: ', description^ );
end.

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Name = Zara Ali
Description: Zara ali a DPS student in class 10th

Now, if you need to define a pointer with specific number of bytes to be referred by it later, you should use the getmem function or the getmem procedure, which has the following syntax −

procedure Getmem(
   out p: pointer;
   Size: PtrUInt
);

function GetMem(
   size: PtrUInt
):pointer;

In the previous example, we declared a pointer to a string. A string has a maximum value of 255 bytes. If you really don't need that much space, or a larger space, in terms of bytes, getmem subprogram allows specifying that. Let us rewrite the previous example, using getmem −

program exMemory;
var
name: array[1..100] of char;
description: ^string;

begin
   name:= 'Zara Ali';
   
   description := getmem(200);
      if not assigned(description) then
         writeln(' Error - unable to allocate required memory')
      else
         description^ := 'Zara ali a DPS student in class 10th';
   writeln('Name = ', name );
   writeln('Description: ', description^ );
   
   freemem(description);
end.

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Name = Zara Ali
Description: Zara ali a DPS student in class 10th

So, you have complete control and you can pass any size value while allocating memory unlike arrays, where once you defined the size cannot be changed.

Resizing and Releasing Memory

When your program comes out, operating system automatically releases all the memory allocated by your program, but as a good practice when you are not in need of memory anymore, then you should release that memory.

Pascal provides the procedure dispose to free a dynamically created variable using the procedure new. If you have allocated memory using the getmem subprogram, then you need to use the subprogram freemem to free this memory. The freemem subprograms have the following syntax −

procedure Freemem(
   p: pointer;
  Size: PtrUInt
);

function Freemem(
   p: pointer
):PtrUInt;

Alternatively, you can increase or decrease the size of an allocated memory block by calling the function ReAllocMem. Let us check the above program once again and make use of ReAllocMem and freemem subprograms. Following is the syntax for ReAllocMem −

function ReAllocMem(
   var p: pointer;
   Size: PtrUInt
):pointer;   

Following is an example which makes use of ReAllocMem and freemem subprograms −

program exMemory;
var
name: array[1..100] of char;
description: ^string;
desp: string;

begin
   name:= 'Zara Ali';
   desp := 'Zara ali a DPS student.';
   
   description := getmem(30);
      if not assigned(description) then
         writeln('Error - unable to allocate required memory')
      else
         description^ := desp;

   (* Suppose you want to store bigger description *)
   description := reallocmem(description, 100);
   desp := desp + ' She is in class 10th.';
   description^:= desp; 
   
   writeln('Name = ', name );
   writeln('Description: ', description^ );
   
   freemem(description);
end.

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Name = Zara Ali
Description: Zara ali a DPS student. She is in class 10th

Memory Management Functions

Pascal provides a hoard of memory management functions that is used in implementing various data structures and implementing low-level programming in Pascal. Many of these functions are implementation dependent. Free Pascal provides the following functions and procedures for memory management −