Hanging program after trying to free allocated memory

Question

I'm not quite sure what is wrong with my current program and I have reach a bit of a road block:

(*ptr).Name = (char*)malloc(strlen(record+1));
strcpy((*ptr).Name, record); 
free((*ptr).Name); //problem area

*ptr is a pointer that points to a structure that has various fields. After I copy some data into the Name field I want to free my allocated memory. When I step through my program I get no errors rather just a hanging program that will not continue after I try and free the memory. Any ideas? Thank you.

We can't debug incomplete code. Your problem likely stems from code not shown. Please provide a [MCVE] — kaylum, Dec 07 '16 at 22:59
`strlen(record+1)` has the *opposite* effect to that intended ;) that is, one shorter. — Weather Vane, Dec 07 '16 at 23:08
[don't cast malloc in C](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/605845/do-i-cast-the-result-of-malloc) — Barmar, Dec 07 '16 at 23:30

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 07 '16 at 23:32

2

(*ptr).Name = (char*)malloc(strlen(record+1)); //This is the problem!
strcpy((*ptr).Name, record); 
free((*ptr).Name); //problem area              //Better practice to use free(ptr->Name

Fix:

ptr->Name = (char*)malloc(strlen(record)+1);   //(record+1) in previouse code was doing 
                                                 //the opposite of what it was intended to do
strcpy(ptr->Name, record); 
free(ptr->Name);

edited Dec 07 '16 at 23:32

user253751

50,383
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answered Dec 07 '16 at 23:24

bodotheguy

93
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`ptr->.Name` should be `ptr->Name` – Barmar Dec 07 '16 at 23:29

Hanging program after trying to free allocated memory

1 Answers1