Having problems with dynamic arrays

[Drewpee]

I'm trying to dynamically allocate a 2D array over 2 functions. I can allocate, but cleanup becomes messy.

CString **ppStrArray;
// Create a pointer
ppStrArray = new CString *[];

int rows, cols;
rows = cols = 0;

CreateArray( rows, cols, ppStrArray );

// Work with array
:
:

// Free memory
if( ppStrArray )
{
for( int i = 0; i < rows; i++ )
{
delete [] ppStrArray[i];
}
// It has a memory violation here
delete [] ppStrArray;
}

void CreateArray( int &row_count, int &col_count, CString **ppArray )
{
// For simplicity I set these, in reality these are determined
// elsewhere
row_count = 5;
col_count = 5;

if( ppArray )
{
for( int row = 0; row < ( int )numRows; row++ )
{
ppArray [row] = new CString[numCols];
}
}
return;
}


This code works if I change
ppStrArray = new CString *[];
to
ppStrArray = new CString *[5]; // 5 in this example

But I don't want to hard code the column count, the whole point of a dynamic array is because I don't know the number of columns. (I'm accessing a SQL server2000 database through stored procedures)
Can any one help?
Thanks,
Drewpee

[Stoned_Coder]

instead of hardcoding a size use a variable that you can set elsewhere in the code possibly even by user input.

[Drewpee]

Yes, before I call the function to create the array, I run a SQL stored procedure to return rowsets from the database (in yet another function) So I don't know the number of columns untill after. The CreateArray function has access to this number but the calling function doesn't know until after the array is created.
Is there no way for a function to clean up this array without explicity setting the dimensions itself?
Seems kinda fishy to me...