Arrays of Pointers, how do they work?

In my book, I'm given the example of

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const char *suit[ 4 ] = { "Hearts", "Diamonds", "Clubs", "Spades" };

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In the previous sections it was made pretty clear that the memory address for an array is reserved before hand and not dynamic. Here we have a pointer array, that points towards other arrays whose size seems to be dynamic. How is this?

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Originally Posted by yougene

In my book, I'm given the example of

Code:

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const char *suit[ 4 ] = { "Hearts", "Diamonds", "Clubs", "Spades" };

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In the previous sections it was made pretty clear that the memory address for an array is reserved before hand and not dynamic. Here we have a pointer array, that points towards other arrays whose size seems to be dynamic. How is this?

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They are not dynamic, they just have different sizes. At any rate, an array of pointers which all point to dynamically allocated things is not a problem either.

for a start theyre not dynamic in anyway because the sizes are automatically set during declaration.

as i read this, it means declare an array of character pointers that are given the values hearts, diamonds, etc.

Right, so your array is defined size: 4.
The content pointed to by the four elements in the array is strings that vary in lenght. But the strings are just string constants, not arrays.

It's the same as

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char *p = "Something";

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p is a pointer. It points to the string "Something", which the compiler will store somewhere in the data section of your executable [modern systems would put it in a "read-only" data section, so you can't change it]. This is the same with any other string constant, for example printf("Hello, World\n") would obviously store the string "Hello, World!\n" somewhere in the executable.

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Mats

Ahh, so the amount of letters in the string determines the fixed size of the array.

Sorry it took so long to respond. I get a little overwhelmed with school for a little while.

Sort of. It's best not to think of it as an array, because "Hearts" takes up less space than "Diamonds", which goes against how arrays work.

You basically have two things to think about:

• An array of four pointers, which point to strings.
• Four read-only strings stored elsewhere, which the pointers point to.

These strings each take up exactly as much space as they need.

Sorry if I'm just re-stating what everyone else has already said.

But each string can be thought of as an array of characters. So the size of each individual character array is determined by the string value assigned to it, no?

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Originally Posted by dwks

Sort of. It's best not to think of it as an array, because "Hearts" takes up less space than "Diamonds", which goes against how arrays work.

You basically have two things to think about:

• An array of four pointers, which point to strings.
• Four read-only strings stored elsewhere, which the pointers point to.

These strings each take up exactly as much space as they need.

Sorry if I'm just re-stating what everyone else has already said.

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Great explanation. Helped me as well!

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Great explanation. Helped me as well!

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Glad to hear it . . .

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But each string can be thought of as an array of characters. So the size of each individual character array is determined by the string value assigned to it, no?

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That's right. I was just saying that thinking of this data structure as a 2D array is confusing. You could think of those "four read-only strings" that I mentioned as arrays if it's easier for you.

Crystal clear, thank you

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Originally Posted by dwks

Sort of. It's best not to think of it as an array, because "Hearts" takes up less space than "Diamonds", which goes against how arrays work.
You basically have two things to think about:

• An array of four pointers, which point to strings.
• Four read-only strings stored elsewhere, which the pointers point to.

These strings each take up exactly as much space as they need.
Sorry if I'm just re-stating what everyone else has already said.

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No, that's fine. I think you worded it best right there. And I would like to clarify again for simplicity reasons that those strings are not stored in the pointers, just the address where the string is stored.