CoTaskMemAlloc

This function allocates a block of task memory.

At a Glance

Syntax

LPVOID CoTaskMemAlloc(ULONG cb);

Parameter

cb

[in] Size, in bytes, of the memory block to be allocated.

Return Values

A pointer to the allocated memory block indicates success. NULL indicates insufficient memory.

Remarks

The initial contents of the returned memory block are undefined – there is no guarantee that the block has been initialized. The allocated block may be larger than cb bytes because of the space required for alignment and for maintenance information.

If cb is zero, CoTaskMemAlloc allocates a zero-length item and returns a valid pointer to that item. If there is insufficient memory available, CoTaskMemAlloc returns NULL.

Applications should always check the return value from this method, even when requesting small amounts of memory, because there is no guarantee the memory will be allocated.

Passing into this function any invalid and, under some circumstances, NULL pointers result in unexpected termination of the application.