Swift 3: Compilation error converting String Array to C Char Array - c

Question

I have the following C struct:
typedef struct {
char** categories;
int category_size;
} category_fmc_s_type;
My Swift array has the following values:
let categories = ["Weekday", "Weekend"]
I want to populate the C Struct field 'categories' with 'Weekday' & 'Weekend'. To do this I call my toPointer():
fileprivate static func toPointer(_ args: [String]) -> UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>> {
let buffer = UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>>.allocate(capacity: args.count)
for (index, value) in args.enumerated() {
buffer[index] = UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>(mutating: (value as NSString).utf8String!)
}
return buffer
}
I keep getting the following XCode 8 error:
Cannot convert value of type 'UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>>' to expected argument type 'UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?>!'
Any suggestions? I don't understand why there is the optional and '!' in the C-Struct definition implicitly.

Answer 1

As the compiler emits as an error, you need to unwrap after Int8 w/ "?" as follows.
fileprivate func toPointer(_ args: [String]) -> UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?> {
let buffer = UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?>.allocate(capacity: args.count)
for (index, value) in args.enumerated() {
buffer[index] = UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>(mutating: (value as NSString).utf8String!)
}
return buffer
}
then,
func testMyCat() {
let categories = ["Weekday", "Weekend"]
let buffer = toPointer(categories)
var mycat = category_fmc_s_type()
mycat.categories = buffer // you would see compile error w/o "?"
}
the code above works w/o error. Martin's solution gives a compile error at
mycat.categories = &cargs (see the link)
I don't know why.

Answer 2

Check the reference of utf8String property of NSString:
Discussion
This C string is a pointer to a structure inside the string object,
which may have a lifetime shorter than the string object and will
certainly not have a longer lifetime. Therefore, you should copy the
C string if it needs to be stored outside of the memory context in
which you use this property.
The term memory context is not well-defined, but one thing sure is that you cannot expect the allocated region for the C string would live forever. When the member categories in the category_fmc_s_type is accessed, the pointers may be pointing to the already freed regions.
Applying the suggestion from Martin R to your code, your code would be like this:
fileprivate static func toPointer(_ args: [String]) -> UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?> {
let buffer = UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?>.allocate(capacity: args.count)
buffer.initialize(from: args.lazy.map{strdup($0)})
return buffer
}
And remember, after you finish using the category_fmc_s_type, you need to deallocate the regions allocated by strdup(_:) and UnsafeMutablePointer.allocate(capacity:):
fileprivate static func freePointer(_ pointers: UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?>, count: Int) {
for i in 0..<count {
free(pointers[i])
}
pointers.deinitialize(count: count)
pointers.deallocate(capacity: count)
}