Originally Posted by
syzygy
Yes, I believe you can make a 2D array of char pointers. However, I overlooked the fact that you were assigning the object inside the function. If you do make these pointers, then you suddenly have to worry about when the memory those pointers are pointing to get destroyed.
Basically, using references and pointers can save you a lot of memory and speed but it would be better to build some kind of memory/resource manager into the system if you do decide to do that. Otherwise, you will end up with crashes because things are referencing something that has suddenly been deleted and they haven't been notified about it.
So, for now, I would just stick with the copy, unless you feel like doing an overhaul (or maybe you already have something that manages things properly).