pointer as second argument instead of returning pointer?

Question

I noticed that it is a common idiom in C to accept an un-malloced pointer as a second argument instead of returning a pointer. Example:

/*functi         


        

Answer 1

I usually prefer receiving pointers (property initialized) as function arguments as opposed to returning a pointer to a memory area that has been malloc'ed inside the function. With this approach you are making explicit that the responsibility of memory management is on the user's side.

Returning pointers usually leads to memory leaks, as it's easier to forget to free() your pointers if you didn't malloc()'ed them.