Our website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience.
Accept
to the top
>
>
>
V613. Suspicious pointer arithmetic...
menu mobile close menu
Additional information
toggle menu Contents

V613. Suspicious pointer arithmetic with 'malloc/new'.

May 12 2012

The analyzer has detected a potential error in the code allocating memory. A pointer returned by the 'malloc' function or any other similar function is summed up with some number. It is very strange and it's highly probable that the code contains a misprint.

Consider this sample:

a = ((int *)(malloc(sizeof(int)*(3+5)))+2);

The expression contains many extraneous parentheses and the programmer must have got mixed up in them. Let's simplify this code to make it clearer:

a = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int)*8);
a += 2;

It's very strange to add number 2 to the pointer. Even if it should be so and the code is correct, it is very dangerous. For example, you might easily forget that memory should be free this way: "free(a - 2);".

This is the correct code:

a = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int)*(3+5+2));

This diagnostic is classified as:

close form

Fill out the form in 2 simple steps below:

Your contact information:

Step 1
Congratulations! This is your promo code!

Desired license type:

Step 2
Team license
Enterprise license
close form
Request our prices
New License
License Renewal
--Select currency--
USD
EUR
close form
Free PVS‑Studio license for Microsoft MVP specialists
close form
To get the licence for your open-source project, please fill out this form
close form
I want to join the test
* By clicking this button you agree to our Privacy Policy statement

close form
check circle
Message submitted.

Your message has been sent. We will email you at


If you do not see the email in your inbox, please check if it is filtered to one of the following folders:

  • Promotion
  • Updates
  • Spam