Help: Resizing an Array of Pointers

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping somebody can help me with an issue I'm running into while trying to resize an array of pointers. Part of the program I'm writing reads in a directory from Windows and stores each folder into an array so I know how many folders are in that directory and what those folders are.

As expected, I can't guarantee each folder has the same number of directories, so I want to have code in place that resizes the array to be larger if it hits the max initial size.

Right now I have the following for doing this:

*initial declaration of array*

Code:

---

int arraySize = 64;
char* textList[arraySize];  // the array in question
memset(textList,'\0',arraySize);  // setting all values of array to null since it won't initially be full anyway.  That way I can run normal print-outs and it will end where it should depending on it's size.

---

*resizing code*

Code:

---

if(i==arraySize){
    arraySize = arraySize * 2;  // double array size
    char * textList2[arraySize];  // create temporary array
    memset(textList2,'\0',arraySize);  // set all values to null like before

    for(j=0;j<listSize;j++){
        textList2[j] = textList[j];  // place all items from textList into textList2
    }
    free(textList);  // free memory at textList
    *textList = *textList2;  // reassign textList to textList2
}

---

Right now the code crashes on item #85 after the increase. I've determined that something is up with my reassignment I think, because if I assign say textList2[119] to something and print out textList2[119] it displays fine. However after reassigning textList to textList2 and trying to print textList[119] it crashes.

Can anyone help point out what I'm doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

i think i would use malloc and realloc for that kind of resizing. just a suggestion.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gemera

i think i would use malloc and realloc for that kind of resizing. just a suggestion.

---

Thank you for the suggestion, but I forgot to mention that I actually tried that too but it resulted in the same issue.

I see a couple problems here:

free(textList); // free memory at textList
*textList = *textList2; // reassign textList to textList2

These are done unconditionally, even if the array is not resized,
and you're assigning a value to *textList after the memory for it has been freed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by megafiddle

...and you're assigning a value to *textList after the memory for it has been freed.

---

I thought reassigning the textList pointer points textList to the memory location of textList2 making the original textList memory location not needed anymore, hence it being freed. Or is that logic wrong? Perhaps I need to do a little further research on how to reassign those things.

In any case, after ridding the free(textList) command I still get the same result haha.

Any other ideas?

This:

*textList = *textList2;

doesn't do what you want.

*textList and *textList2 are not pointers, but are the values that textList and textList2 point to.

I think what you are trying to do is this:

textList = textList2;

However, that isn't permissable. You can't assign a value to an array name. It's not modifiable.
Right idea, you just can't do it with an array like that.

So you actually modified the first element of textList, not the location of that array. textList still points to the memory area that you freed up.

Better to just use pointers, which you can reassign, instead of arrays.

It looks to me like your main issue is that the concepts of arrays, pointers, pointers to arrays and arrays of pointers are all jumbled up in your mind. I suggest you revisit these topics either on our FAQ here or in your textbook, or any other online reference before proceeding.