---
title: "How do you handle an \"out of memory\" error while dynamically allocating memory in C?"  
description: "How do you handle an \"out of memory\" error while dynamically allocating memory in C?"  
author: "Steilla Mitchel"  
published: 2023-08-09  
updated: 2023-08-16  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159523/how-do-you-handle-an-out-of-memory-error-while-dynamically-allocating-memory-in-c  
category: "C Language"  
tags: ["exception handling", "memory management", "c language"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# How do you handle an "out of memory" error while dynamically allocating memory in C?

How do you [handle](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/311004/suede-skillet-handle-cover) an "out of [memory](https://www.mindstick.com/blog/300050/what-causes-sudden-memory-loss)" [error](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/88527/fixing-quickbooks-error-4120-reinstalling-vs-repairing) while dynamically allocating memory in C?

## Replies

### Reply by Aryan Kumar

An out of memory error occurs when a program attempts to allocate more memory than is available. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as:

- The program is running on a system with limited memory.
- The program is allocating too much memory.
- The program is allocating memory that is already in use.

When an out of memory error occurs, the program will typically crash. There are a few ways to handle an out of memory error:

- **Use a try-catch block.** The try-catch block is a way to handle errors in C. The try block contains the code that might cause an error, and the catch block handles the error.

Here is an example of how to use a try-catch block to handle an out of memory error:

C

```plaintext
void foo() {
  int *ptr = malloc(1000000); // This might cause an out of memory error

  try {
    // Code that might cause an error
  } catch (const std::bad_alloc& e) {
    // Handle the error
    std::cout << "Out of memory!" << std::endl;
  }
}
```

**Use a memory allocator that handles out of memory errors.** There are a number of memory allocators available that can help to handle out of memory errors. These allocators will typically return a null pointer if they cannot allocate the requested amount of memory.

**Exit the program gracefully.** If you cannot handle an out of memory error gracefully, you can simply exit the program. This will prevent the program from crashing, but it will also lose any unsaved data.

Here are some additional things to keep in mind when handling out of memory errors:

- Be careful about using functions that might cause out of memory errors. For example, the `malloc()` function can cause an out of memory error if there is not enough memory available.
- Use a debugger to find out why an out of memory error occurred. This can help you to avoid the error in the future.


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