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From the data-type perspective, malloc generates a
pointer that is said to be of type void*. Such void*
pointers have the
property that they can be cast into pointers of any type.
To cast the result of a call to malloc into a form suitable for
assignment to a trade object, you preface the call to
malloc by a parentheses-enclosed specification of the appropriate
pointer data type.
*-- Converts address into the form required for
| assignment to trade pointers
|
| *-- Produces address of memory
| | chunk reserved for a trade
v v
--------------- ------------------------------
tptr = (struct trade*) malloc (sizeof (struct trade));
Note that the specification of the data type includes an asterisk—the
data type is to be a pointer to a trade object, rather than a
trade object.
Also, remember that malloc-containing statements require the C
compiler to create executable code that allocates memory for a trade
object at run time, rather than at compile time.