What's the point of malloc(0)?

Question

I just saw this code:

artist = (char *) malloc(0);

...and I was wondering why would one do this?

Answer 1

Just to correct a false impression here:

artist = (char *) malloc(0); will never ever return NULL; it's not the same as artist = NULL;. Write a simple program and compare artist with NULL. if (artist == NULL) is false and if (artist) is true.