Return array of ponters?

[priya]

Hi all,

I am new to this group.I am working in c language.I have dount
in pointer? how to retun array of pointer in function?


example
main()
{
char *var[2];
char *a[2];
a[0]="hi";
a[1]="c language";
var=function(a) ;
}

char* function(char *a[2])
{
char *b[2];
b=a;

return(b);
}
In this program i have to retun b value(array of pointer) to var
variable...
Thanks

regards,
priya

[junky_fellow]

main()
{
char *var[2];
char *a[2];
a[0]="hi";
a[1]="c language";
var=function(a) ;
This is wrong. var is not an "lvalue".
}

char* function(char *a[2])
{
char *b[2];
b=a;
Again wrong. b is not an "lvalue".

return(b);
}
In this program i have to retun b value(array of pointer) to var
variable...

You cannot return an array of pointers. What you can do is return
the address of the first element of the array of pointers.

[bjrnove]

Hi.

You shouldn't work with an array of pointers like that. Instead you
should use
a pointer to a char* whitch will give you the result you want.

Your example would then look something like this.

example:
#include <stdio.h>

/* You should ALWAYS declare functions so the compiler knows what
argument it
wants. If not you basicly could give it as many arguments you want and
they all
would be the type int (witch in this case will work ok on most systems,
but not
all). */
char** function(char **a);

/* main always has the type int and if no arguments you should always
give void */
int main(void)
{
char *a[2]; /* Your array of pointers */
char **var; /* A pointer to a char* witch could work as an array of
pointers */
a[0] = "hi";
a[1] = "c language";
var = function(a);

printf("%s %s\n", var[0], var[1]);
system("pause") ;
return 0;
}

/* Takes one argument witch is a pointer to a char* and returns a
pointer to a char*. */
char** function(char **a)
{
char **b;

b=a;

/* You do not need the brackets, but that's not important */
return b;
}

--
bjrnove

[junky_fellow]

bjrnove wrote:

Hi.

You shouldn't work with an array of pointers like that. Instead you
should use
a pointer to a char* whitch will give you the result you want.

Your example would then look something like this.

example:
#include <stdio.h>

/* You should ALWAYS declare functions so the compiler knows what
argument it
wants. If not you basicly could give it as many arguments you want and they all
would be the type int (witch in this case will work ok on most systems, but not
all). */
char** function(char **a);

/* main always has the type int and if no arguments you should always
give void */
int main(void)
{
char *a[2]; /* Your array of pointers */
char **var; /* A pointer to a char* witch could work as an array of pointers */
a[0] = "hi";
a[1] = "c language";
var = function(a);

printf("%s %s\n", var[0], var[1]);
system("pause") ;
return 0;
}

/* Takes one argument witch is a pointer to a char* and returns a
pointer to a char*. */
char** function(char **a)
{
char **b;

b=a;

/* You do not need the brackets, but that's not important */
return b;
}

--
bjrnove

I was just wondering how compiler evaluates var[0] and var[1].
var was originally declared as a double pointer to char.
How does compiler evaluates var[1] ?

[bjrnove]

>I was just wondering how compiler evaluates var[0] and var[1].

var was originally declared as a double pointer to char.
How does compiler evaluates var[1] ?

The compiler will translate var[1] into *(var + 1) witch in this case
will give you the address of a (since var is the address of a) +
sizeof(char*) (at least on a x86 system). I also think the standard
make shure this is true on every system, but I wouldn't bet my life on
it.

--
bjrnove

[S.Tobias]

bjrnove <bj*****@gmail. com> wrote:

example:
[snipped some comments for clarity]
#include <stdio.h> char** function(char **a); int main(void)
{
char *a[2]; /* Your array of pointers */
char **var; /* A pointer to a char* witch could work as an array of
pointers */
a[0] = "hi";
a[1] = "c language";
var = function(a); printf("%s %s\n", var[0], var[1]);
system("pause") ; This is very OS-specific, better use:
getchar(); return 0;
} char** function(char **a)
{
char **b; b=a; /* You do not need the brackets, but that's not important */
return b;
}

(I didn't test the code, but seems okay.)

The array `a' is passed to the function `function' by reference,
therefore there's no need to return a reference to it again.
Supposing `function' does something to the array, the code
could read:

void function(char **);

int main()
{
char *a[2] = {"hi", "c language"};
function(a);
printf("%s %s\n", a[0], a[1]);
}

void function(char **a)
{
a[0] = "Hello";
a[1] = "World!";
}

--
Stan Tobias
mailx `echo si***@FamOuS.Be dBuG.pAlS.INVALID | sed s/[[:upper:]]//g`

[S.Tobias]

bjrnove <bj*****@gmail. com> wrote:

The compiler will translate var[1] into *(var + 1) witch in this case
will give you the address of a (since var is the address of a) +
sizeof(char*) (at least on a x86 system). I also think the standard
make shure this is true on every system, but I wouldn't bet my life on
it.

You safely could. This is how subscript operator is actually defined.

--
Stan Tobias
mailx `echo si***@FamOuS.Be dBuG.pAlS.INVALID | sed s/[[:upper:]]//g`

[bjrnove]

>The array `a' is passed to the function `function' by reference,

therefore there's no need to return a reference to it again.
Supposing 'function' does something to the array, the code could read:

system("pause") ;

This is very OS-specific, better use:
getchar(); Oh, sorry. This was for me only (so I could see the result when
testing), I was supose to remove it when pasting the code :-).

void function(char **);
int main()
{
char *a[2] = {"hi", "c language"};
function(a);
printf("%s %s\n", a[0], a[1]);
} I though about do as you did above (with initializing), except I wanted
to make it as simular to the original example as possible. I think the
clue wasn't the code, but how to play with pointers to array's.



void function(char **a)
{
a[0] = "Hello";
a[1] = "World!";
}

This isn't what was asked for. The point here is to create a function
that returns an array of pointers. And I tried to explain that a char**
really is the same as char*[2] except sizeof would't work as expected
on the char**.

--
bjrnove

[priya]

Hi all,

Thanks for your response...Now i am clear abt how to return
array of pointer in fuction...I runned ur sample program..it is working
good.....once again thanks
Regards,
priya
bjrnove wrote:

The array `a' is passed to the function `function' by reference,
therefore there's no need to return a reference to it again.
Supposing 'function' does something to the array, the code could

read:

system("pause") ;

This is very OS-specific, better use:
getchar();

Oh, sorry. This was for me only (so I could see the result when
testing), I was supose to remove it when pasting the code :-).

void function(char **);
int main()
{
char *a[2] = {"hi", "c language"};
function(a);
printf("%s %s\n", a[0], a[1]);
}

I though about do as you did above (with initializing), except I

wanted to make it as simular to the original example as possible. I think the clue wasn't the code, but how to play with pointers to array's.

void function(char **a)
{
a[0] = "Hello";
a[1] = "World!";
} This isn't what was asked for. The point here is to create a function
that returns an array of pointers. And I tried to explain that a

char** really is the same as char*[2] except sizeof would't work as expected
on the char**.

--
bjrnove

[priya]

Hi all,

Thanks for ur response...I run ur sample program..it is working
good....once again thanks
Regards,
priya