array of string pointers in C

Question

I know that strings in C are basically an array of characters.

I was trying have an array of pointers, pointers which link to the strings

I basically wanted to print this out, without depending on '\n' to sort it

12345
abcde
67890
fghij

This is my code - >

char *array1 = "12345";
char *array2 = "abcde";
char *array3 = "67890";
char *array4 = "fghij";

char *array_2d[3];

array_2d[0] = &array1; 
array_2d[1] = &array2; 
array_2d[2] = &array3;
array_2d[3] = &array4;

int i,j;

for(i = 0; i<3 ; i++ ) {
    for(j = 0; j<3 ; j++) {
        printf("%c", array_2d[i][j]);
    }
}

i might be making mistakes, so any clues would be appreciated

Note that your array should be size 4 to hold all four strings. — Kyle T
– Kyle T, Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 11:59

md5 · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-03 11:57:53Z

5

I know that strings in C are basically an array of characters.

A string is a null-terminated array of characters.

array_2d[0] = &array1;

&array1 has char ** type (pointer to string), whereas you want a char * (ie. array1).

array_2d[0] = array1;

answered Jul 3, 2013 at 11:57

md5

23.8k4 gold badges49 silver badges96 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Ingo Leonhardt · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-03 12:01:21Z

2

There are two mistakes:

you declare char *array_2d[3] which means your have an array size of 3 with indexes 0 to 2 but you assign array_2d[3] = &array4:
your variables array1 to array4 are already char * so the correct assignment to elements in array_2d would be array_2d[0] = array1 and so on

answered Jul 3, 2013 at 12:01

Ingo Leonhardt

9,9292 gold badges26 silver badges37 bronze badges

Comments

Nirav Gadhiya · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-03 12:11:56Z

2

Try this.....

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

main()
{
    char *array1 = "12345";
    char *array2 = "abcde";
    char *array3 = "67890";
    char *array4 = "fghij";

    char *array_2d[4];

    array_2d[0] = array1;
    array_2d[1] = array2;
    array_2d[2] = array3;
    array_2d[3] = array4;

    int i,j;

    for(i = 0; i<4 ; i++ )
    {
        for (j = 0; j<5; j++)
        {
            printf("%c", array_2d[i][j]);
        }
        printf(@"\n");
    }

}

answered Jul 3, 2013 at 12:11

Nirav Gadhiya

6,3323 gold badges39 silver badges76 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

array of string pointers in C

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related