====== (This is the legacy documentation for stable SDL2, the current stable version; [https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL3/ SDL3] is the current development version.) ======
= SDL_AllocRW =

Use this function to allocate an empty, unpopulated [[SDL_RWops]] structure.

== Syntax ==

<syntaxhighlight lang='c'>
SDL_RWops* SDL_AllocRW(void);
</syntaxhighlight>

== Return Value ==

Returns a pointer to the allocated memory on success, or NULL on failure;
call [[SDL_GetError]]() for more information.

== Remarks ==

Applications do not need to use this function unless they are providing
their own [[SDL_RWops]] implementation. If you just need a [[SDL_RWops]] to
read/write a common data source, you should use the built-in
implementations in SDL, like [[SDL_RWFromFile]]() or [[SDL_RWFromMem]](),
etc.

You must free the returned pointer with [[SDL_FreeRW]](). Depending on your
operating system and compiler, there may be a difference between the
malloc() and free() your program uses and the versions SDL calls
internally. Trying to mix the two can cause crashing such as segmentation
faults. Since all [[SDL_RWops]] must free themselves when their '''close'''
method is called, all [[SDL_RWops]] must be allocated through this
function, so they can all be freed correctly with [[SDL_FreeRW]]().

== Version ==

This function is available since SDL 2.0.0.

== Related Functions ==

:[[SDL_FreeRW]]

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[[CategoryAPI]]