Finding Memory leaks in C using Visual Studio 2013

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2013, and taking a course in C programming and we started
talking about memory bugs detaction, in particular memory leaks, and how to detect them using Valgrind on Linux.
I want to know if there is a way to detect such memory leaks using VS 2013. I tried searching online but it just leads to lots of articles and blogs and msdn posts and blogs with lots of words like dump files, and analyzing them, etc which is weird
because:
1) It sounds so complex, convoluted and unintuitive it is actually hard to comprehend it.
2) The main reason this is weird is due to the fact that VS is the most advanced IDE around and Microsoft spends so much money on in, yet from what I have read it seems that there is no simple way to use VS to detect memory leaks
- certainly no way that's as simple as Valgrind where I only have to compile the program and run the command valgrind -leaks-check=yes ProgramName
and it simply prints to me all location it thinks there is a memory leak and describes the error (like not freeing memory after allocating it with malloc hence having "dead" memory after the program finishes, or accessing memory that's out of
the array bounds)                                                                                                                                                               
So my question is how to use VS 2013 in order to achieve the same results and to find out First in high level if there are memory leaks in the program, and Second - to detect in a simple manner where those leaks are- preferably without involving dump files
(not that I know how to use them anyway in VS).

Answer 1

Hi MicrosoftLaw,
Thanks for your post.
Based on your issue, if you want to check if there are memory leaks in the C program from this VS2013. I suggest you could try to find Memory Leaks Using the CRT Library, for more information:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x98tx3cf.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
In addition, I find a similar thread about this issue, please you refer the Dusty's suggestion to check this issue.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/45627/how-do-you-detect-avoid-memory-leaks-in-your-unmanaged-code
I did some research about this issue, I found that the Visual Leak Detector extension tool is a free, robust, open-source memory leak detection system for Visual C++. So if possible, I suggest you could try to use the Visual Leak Detector extension
tool to find the memory leak for Visual C/ C++ program.
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7c40a5d8-dd35-4019-a2af-cb1403f5939c
However, if you have any issue about how to use this Visual Leak Detector extension tool to find the memory leak for C program. I suggest you could directly to write a review to this REVIEW tab in Visual Leak Detector site.
Best Regards,
We are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time. Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.
Click
HERE to participate the survey.