What happens to memory after '\0' in a C string?

Question

Surprisingly simple/stupid/basic question, but I have no idea: Suppose I want to return the user of my function a C-string, whose length I do not know at the beginning of th

Answer 1

The \0is a pure convention to interpret character arrays as stings - it is independent of the memory management. I.e., if you want to get your money back, you should call realloc. The string does not care about memory (what is a source of many security problems).