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Memory allocation reserves computer memory for a program’s data and makes that storage accessible through memory addresses. Allocation determines where data can live and how long the storage remains available; initialization determines the data’s initial value. A language can arrange storage automatically for local variables, retain storage for the duration of a program, or request storage dynamically while the program runs.

In the C programming language, malloc(n) requests a block of $n$ bytes and returns a pointer to it, or a null pointer if allocation fails. Successful allocation does not initialize those bytes. The free operation releases a previously allocated block for subsequent allocation; accessing it through an old pointer is no longer valid.^[ref][ref] Allocation and deallocation are therefore separate from reading and writing an object. Deallocation need not erase its former contents or immediately return its storage to the operating system.

For a process using virtual memory, a contiguous interval of memory addresses does not require a contiguous interval of physical memory. The memory management unit can map successive virtual pages to different physical page frames. Conversely, a successful small allocation may be satisfied from an existing free block without asking the operating system for another page.

Two small bookkeeping examples explain why free capacity alone does not determine whether an allocation succeeds. If an allocator rounds a 17-byte request up to a 32-byte allocation unit, 15 bytes are unused inside that unit: internal fragmentation, before counting any allocator metadata. If two free 32-byte blocks are separated by an occupied block, a request for one contiguous 48-byte block cannot fit in either hole, even though 64 bytes are free. That is external memory fragmentation, under the assumption that the occupied block cannot be moved and no further storage is available. Adjacent free blocks can sometimes be combined; separated ones require a different placement or movement strategy.