C - Pass Array of Strings as Function Parameter - c

Question

I need to pass a pre-allocated array of strings as a function parameter, and strcpy() to each of the strings within the string array, as in this example:
static void string_copy(char * pointer[]) {
strcpy(pointer[0], "Hello ");
strcpy(pointer[1], "world");
}
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
char my_array[10][100];
string_copy(my_array);
printf("%s%s\n", my_array[0], my_array[1]);
}
And the resulting printed string would be 'Hello world'.
How do I pass a pre-allocated string array and fill out each string within a function as shown above?

Answer 1

When you are doing string_copy(my_array), you are passing a char (*)[100], i.e. pointer to char[100] array to your function. But your function is expecting a char *[], i.e. array of char pointers, because you have defined your function that way.
You can fix this by making changes so that your function (string_copy()) expects a char (*)[100], instead of a char *[].
For this, you can change your function definition as:
/* Your my_array gets converted to pointer to char[100]
so, you need to change your function parameter
from `char *pointer[]` to `char (*pointer)[100]`
*/
/* static void string_copy(char *pointer []) */
static void string_copy(char (*pointer) [100])
{
strcpy(pointer[0], "Hello ");
strcpy(pointer[1], "world");
}
* Alternative Solution *
A different design/solution would be to change in your main() function so that you are actually passing a char *[], which decays into a char ** - which is fine - to string_copy(). This way you would NOT have to change your string_copy() function.
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
char my_array[10][100];
int tot_char_arrs, i;
char *char_arr_ptr[10];
/* Get total number of char arrays in my_array */
tot_char_arrs = sizeof(my_array) / sizeof(my_array[0]);
// Store all char *
for (i = 0; i < tot_char_arrs; i++)
char_arr_ptr[i] = my_array[i];
/* Actually passing a char *[].
it will decay into char **, which is fine
*/
string_copy(char_arr_ptr);
printf("%s%s\n", my_array[0], my_array[1]);
}

Answer 2

you need to use a pointer to the array. here is an example with 1 dimension array:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <string.h>
static void string_copy(char **pointer) {
strcpy(pointer[0], "Hello ");
}
int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
char my_array[10];
char * p_array = my_array;
string_copy(&p_array);
printf("%s\n", my_array);
}

Answer 3

Your function can simply accept matrix dimensions and pass a const char * that stores the array of literals (pre-allocated) strings:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define STRINGS_LENGTH 100
static void string_copy(size_t n, size_t m, char pointer[n][m], const char *strings_to_copy[])
{
for (size_t i=0; i< n; i++)
{
strcpy(pointer[i], strings_to_copy[i]);
}
}
int main( void )
{
const char *strings[] = { "hello", "World" };
char my_array[sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0])][STRINGS_LENGTH];
string_copy(sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0]), STRINGS_LENGTH, my_array, strings);
printf("%s %s\n", my_array[0], my_array[1]);
}
You can also change the structure of your code using dynamic allocation for your output array like:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
static bool string_copy(char *pointer[], const char *strings_to_copy[], size_t strings)
{
for (size_t i=0; i< strings; i++)
{
pointer[i] = malloc(strlen(strings_to_copy[i])+1);
if (pointer[i] != NULL)
strcpy(pointer[i], strings_to_copy[i]);
else
return false;
}
return true;
}
int main(void)
{
const char *strings[] = { "hello", "World" };
char *my_array[sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0])] = {0};
if (string_copy(my_array, strings, sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0])) )
{
printf("%s %s\n", my_array[0], my_array[1]);
}
for (size_t i = 0; i<sizeof(strings)/sizeof(strings[0]); i++)
free (my_array[i]);
}