error in my code, please help

In this function I made, it takes input which will always be in the format: xx:xx like a time. For example 17:05. In military time. times[] could possibly hold the same info somewhere. so i check all through the array times[] for a match. when there is a match, i want a messagebox to come up, which is in the code. the only problem is, the messagebox comes up a TON of times, not just once. i thought i stopped it from being done a bunch of times by using playflag. (its called playflag because eventually it will play a sound). Anyway, heres the code - any help is appreciated:

EDIT: ooh, and this function is run many times over and over again. but you see i set the element in times[] to a "." which signifies no entry. So when it is run again, it shouldn't find anything there, i'm not sure what the problem is

Code:

---

void CheckTimes(char sometime[6])
{
        char* temp[1000];
        for(int i=0; i<1000; i++)
        {
                temp[i] = new char[50];
                strcpy(temp[i], ".");
        }
        i=0;
        for(int x=0; x<1000; x++) //Trouble loop
        {
                if(strcmp(times[x], ".")!=0) //means there is real info
                {
                        strcpy(temp[i], times[x]);
                        i++;
                }
        }

        bool flag = false;
        bool playflag = true;
        for(x=0; x<i; x++)
        {
                if(playflag)
                {
                    if(strcmp(temp[x], sometime)==0) //they match
                        {
                            MessageBox(NULL, "we have a match", "we have a match", MB_OK);
                                playflag = false;
                            for(int a=0; a<=999; a++)
                                {
                                    if(!flag)
                                        {
                                        if(strcmp(times[a], sometime)==0)
                                                {
                                                    strcpy(times[a], "."); //removes entry we just used up
                                                    flag = true;
                                                }
                                        }
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
}

---

I found what is not going on, but I'm not sure why. Like I said the function is ran over and over again. For some reason, the entry from times[] is not being removed when the function is ran. I use the exact same chunk of code elsewhere in my program and it works just fine. I'm not sure why it doesn't work now.

for(int i=0; i<1000; i++)
for(int x=0; x<1000; x++)
for(x=0; x<i; x++)


hello, i am pretty surre that u can't use I and X outside the loops they were declared in. They get distroyed after the loop ends. I might be rong.

You last loop might be repeating because X and I don't exist in that loop so wat u end up with is

for ( ) <-- this is a perferctly normal c++ loop.

if u use this kind of loop then u have to provide an exiting condition inside the code that is looped.

so my conclusion is that since u are using variable created in the other loops they effect ur last loop. So one solution is to makee them global by declaring them after this

char* temp[1000];

int x,y,i;

Nah, I've narrowed it down to the line that says:

strcpy(times[a], ".");

I know this code runs, because if I put a MessageBox() right above it, the message box appears. The only problem is that the correct times[] element is not being set to ".". Hmm...

hmmm, ok since you are only trying to move one char then u can do this

times[a] = '.' ;


this is a more efficient method and it works.