_aligned_malloc

Allocates memory on a specified alignment boundary.

void * _aligned_malloc(
    size_t size, 
    size_t alignment
);

Parameters

• size
  Size of the requested memory allocation.

• alignment
  The alignment value, which must be an integer power of 2.

Return Value

A pointer to the memory block that was allocated or NULL if the operation failed. The pointer is a multiple of alignment.

Remarks

_aligned_malloc is based on malloc.

_aligned_malloc is marked __declspec(noalias) and __declspec(restrict), meaning that the function is guaranteed not to modify global variables and that the pointer returned is not aliased. For more information, see noalias and restrict.

In Visual C++ 2005, this function sets errno to ENOMEM if the memory allocation failed or if the requested size was greater than _HEAP_MAXREQ. For more information about errno, see errno, _doserrno, _sys_errlist, and _sys_nerr. Also, _aligned_malloc validates its parameters. If alignment is not a power of 2 or size is zero, this function invokes the invalid parameter handler, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, this function returns NULL and sets errno to EINVAL.

Requirements

Routine	Required header
_aligned_malloc	<malloc.h>

Example

// crt_aligned_malloc.c

#include <malloc.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    void    *ptr;
    size_t  alignment,
            off_set;

    // Note alignment should be 2^N where N is any positive int.
    alignment = 16;
    off_set = 5;

    // Using _aligned_malloc
    ptr = _aligned_malloc(100, alignment);
    if (ptr == NULL)
    {
        printf_s( "Error allocation aligned memory.");
        return -1;
    }
    if (((int)ptr % alignment ) == 0)
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, is aligned on %d\n",
                  ptr, alignment);
    else
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, is not aligned on %d\n", 
                  ptr, alignment);

    // Using _aligned_realloc
    ptr = _aligned_realloc(ptr, 200, alignment);
    if ( ((int)ptr % alignment ) == 0)
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, is aligned on %d\n",
                  ptr, alignment);
    else
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, is not aligned on %d\n", 
                  ptr, alignment);
    _aligned_free(ptr);

    // Using _aligned_offset_malloc
    ptr = _aligned_offset_malloc(200, alignment, off_set);
    if (ptr == NULL)
    {
        printf_s( "Error allocation aligned offset memory.");
        return -1;
    }
    if ( ( (((int)ptr) + off_set) % alignment ) == 0)
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, is offset by %d on alignment of %d\n",
                  ptr, off_set, alignment);
    else
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, does not satisfy offset %d "
                  "and alignment %d\n",ptr, off_set, alignment);

    // Using _aligned_offset_realloc
    ptr = _aligned_offset_realloc(ptr, 200, alignment, off_set);
    if (ptr == NULL)
    {
        printf_s( "Error reallocation aligned offset memory.");
        return -1;
    }
    if ( ( (((int)ptr) + off_set) % alignment ) == 0)
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, is offset by %d on alignment of %d\n",
                  ptr, off_set, alignment);
    else
        printf_s( "This pointer, %d, does not satisfy offset %d and "
                  "alignment %d\n", ptr, off_set, alignment);

    // Note that _aligned_free works for both _aligned_malloc
    // and _aligned_offset_malloc. Using free is illegal.
    _aligned_free(ptr);
}

This pointer, 3280880, is aligned on 16
This pointer, 3280880, is aligned on 16
This pointer, 3280891, is offset by 5 on alignment of 16
This pointer, 3280891, is offset by 5 on alignment of 16

See Also

Concepts

Data Alignment