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# Predefined Allocators

CFAllocator provides the following predefined allocators. In general, you should use `kCFAllocatorDefault` unless one of the special circumstances exist below.

## Topics

### Constants

[`kCFAllocatorDefault`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/kCFAllocatorDefault)

This is a synonym for `NULL`.

[`kCFAllocatorSystemDefault`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/kCFAllocatorSystemDefault)

Default system allocator.

[`kCFAllocatorMalloc`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/kCFAllocatorMalloc)

This allocator uses `malloc()`, `realloc()`, and `free()`.

[`kCFAllocatorMallocZone`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/kCFAllocatorMallocZone)

This allocator explicitly uses the default malloc zone, returned by `malloc_default_zone()`.

[`kCFAllocatorNull`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/kCFAllocatorNull)

This allocator does nothing—it allocates no memory.

[`kCFAllocatorUseContext`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/kCFAllocatorUseContext)

Special allocator argument to [`CFAllocatorCreate(_:_:)`](/documentation/CoreFoundation/CFAllocatorCreate(_:_:))—it uses the functions given in the context to allocate the allocator.


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