Storing Multiple Strings

[skmightymouse]

How would I store multiple strings that a user inputs? Also the user can enter as many strings as he wants until he enters an empty string ("str[0] == '\0').

I am guessing I would want to store each string into a different array but since the amount of strings is always changing how would I store them that can adapt to the amount of strings entered.

This is the code I have so far that simply loops everytime the user inputs a string.

    int ch, count = 0;
    char *result;

    do
    {    
        int i = 0;

        str[0] = 0;

        printf ("\nInput string values: ");    

        while ((ch = getchar()) != '\n' && i < 81)
        {
            str[i++] = ch;
            str[i] = 0;
        }
        if (str[0] != '\0')
        {
            result = strtok(str, "\t  ");

            while (result != NULL)
            {
                printf ("\nstring %i %s \n", count, result);
                count++;
                result = strtok(NULL, "\t ");
            }
        }
    }
    while (str[0] != '\0');

Somewhere in that loop I need to store each of those strings and so I was wondering if there was a way to do that?

[laserlight]

You want to store the individual tokens into an array?

The basic idea is to use malloc to obtain a dynamic array of pointers to char. Then, once you obtain a token, you malloc memory for it, copy the contents over, and then store the pointer in the dynamic array of pointers to char. At some point, the size of the array in use reaches its capacity, upon which you use realloc to "expand" the dynamic array of pointers to char (typically, expansion is by some factor rather than a fixed amount, e.g., 1.5 or 2).

When you are done, you free the memory for each token, then free the memory for the dynamic array of pointers to char.

[skmightymouse]

Sorry, that is a lot to take in at once. I am just going to start by addressing the dynamic array of pointers to char using malloc.

Would the code look similar to this: array = malloc(81 * sizeof( *array));