What does it mean by buffer?

Question

I see the word \"BUFFER\" everywhere, but I am unable to grasp what it exactly is.

1. Would anybody please explain what is buffer in laym

Answer 1

Buffer is temporary placeholder (variables in many programming languages) in memory (ram/disk) on which data can be dumped and then processing can be done.

There are many advantages of Buffering like it allows things to happen in parallel, improve IO performance, etc.

It also has many downside if not used correctly like buffer overflow, buffer underflow, etc.

C Example of Character buffer.

char *buffer1 = calloc(5, sizeof(char));

char *buffer2 = calloc(15, sizeof(char));