What is the purpose of the 'new' operator in C++?

The 'new' operator in C++ is specifically designed to allocate memory dynamically for a variable or an array during the runtime of a program. When 'new' is used, it requests a block of memory from the heap, which increases flexibility since the size of the memory required can be determined during execution rather than at compile time. This allows for the creation of objects or arrays with a size that can change based on user input or other runtime conditions.

Using 'new' returns a pointer to the allocated memory, which can then be used to access or modify the data stored there. It is essential to remember that memory allocated with 'new' should be released with the 'delete' operator to avoid memory leaks, making proper memory management crucial in C++.

The other options do not correctly describe the function of 'new': the freeing of memory is handled by 'delete', copying an existing variable is done through assignment or copy constructors, and initializing pointers to null is handled separately using the assignment of nullptr.