What is the difference between "calloc(…)" and "malloc(…)"?

[ahprofessional]

What is the difference between “calloc(…)” and “malloc(…)”?

[juwanine]

Some important difference between calloc and malloc are given below:

malloc:

malloc takes only the “size” of the memory block to be allocated as input parameter.
malloc allocates memory as a single contiguous block.
if  a single contiguous block cannot be allocated then malloc would fail.

calloc:

calloc takes two parameters: the number of memory blocks and the size of each block of memory
calloc allocates memory which may/may not be contiguous.
all the memory blocks are initialized to 0.
it follows from point 2 that, calloc will not fail if memory can be allocated in non-contiguous blocks when a single contiguous block cannot be allocated.

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