Heap

Allocating memory

Memory on the heap is allocated using the new keyword. For example, new i32 allocates an i32 in heap and returns a pointer to the allocated memory.

var: *i32 = new i32;

new keyword can be used with any type to allocate it on the heap. For example, variable lengths arrays can be created using the new keyword like new [length]type which returns a pointer to type.

Initializing memory

Memory can be initialized either by using the new keyword to allocate memory and initializing it separately like ordinary pointers or by using the initialization syntax of the new keyword. For example, new i32(100) allocates an i32 on the heap, initializes it with value 100, and returns a pointer to it.

Arrays, tuples, and structs can also be initialized with the same syntax like new [length]type {val1, val2, val3}, new Struct {field1: prop1, field2: prop2} and new Tuple {val1, val2}

Freeing memory

Memory is freed using the delete keyword. For example, delete ptr; frees the memory ptr points to. You can free multiple pointers in the same statement as delete ptr1, ptr2, ptr3;. Freeing a pointer to stack memory or double freeing memory causes undefined behavior. It's not necessary to manually free memory because Volant also has garbage collection.

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You can also use the c-like malloc, realloc, calloc and free functions which are exported from heap.vo.

import "heap.vo";

func main() i32 {
   a: *u8 = heap.malloc(100);
   heap.free(a);
}