How to free a pointer to a dynamic array in C?

Question

I create a dynamic array in C with malloc, ie.:

myCharArray = (char *) malloc(16);

Now if I make a function like this and pass myCharArray to it:

reset(char * myCharArrayp)
{
    free(myCharArrayp);
}

will that work, or will I somehow only free the copy of the pointer to myCharArrayp and not the actual myCharArray?

Answer 1

That will be fine and free the memory as you expect.

I would consider writing the function this way:

 void reset(char** myPointer) {
     if (myPointer) {
         free(*myPointer);
         *myPointer = NULL;
     }
 }

so that the pointer is set to NULL after being freed. Reusing previously freed pointers is a common source of errors.