Programming Forums - View Single Post - Question about multidimensional arrays of strings

aznluvsmc · Oct 14th, 2005, 8:15 PM

Hi,

I'd just like to know if the following two declarations to create an array of strings are equivalent to each other.

(Toggle Plain Text)

int main(void)
{
     char *strings1[5];
     char strings2[5][21];
}

From my understanding, strings1 is an array of 5 pointers-to-char and strings2 is an array of 5 arrays of 21 char elements. In both cases, I see that they can both hold strings but strings2 can only hold a string with a max size of 20 characters whereas strings1 can hold variable length strings using dynamic memory allocation. I guess the better question is, can strings2 be equivalently expressed as strings1 and vice-versa?

Sorry if this sounds like such a noob question but my understanding on creating arrays of strings is kind of fuzzy.

Oct 14th, 2005, 8:15 PM	#1
aznluvsmc Hobbyist Programmer Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 137 Rep Power: 4	Question about multidimensional arrays of strings Hi, I'd just like to know if the following two declarations to create an array of strings are equivalent to each other. (Toggle Plain Text) int main(void) { char strings1[5]; char strings2[5][21]; } int main(void) { char strings1[5]; char strings2[5][21]; } From my understanding, strings1 is an array of 5 pointers-to-char and strings2 is an array of 5 arrays of 21 char elements. In both cases, I see that they can both hold strings but strings2 can only hold a string with a max size of 20 characters whereas strings1 can hold variable length strings using dynamic memory allocation. I guess the better question is, can strings2 be equivalently expressed as strings1 and vice-versa? Sorry if this sounds like such a noob question but my understanding on creating arrays of strings is kind of fuzzy.