Pointer to a array of chars for string in C

Question

I was asked this on an interview for an entry level position and was interested as to why you need two pointers. It was a phone interview and he had me write down

char **a[5]

and asked me what this was?

He told me that it was a pointer to an array of 5 characters in order to produce a string of 5 character. I am just trying to understand why its char **a[5] and not char *a[5].

This is an array of five pointers-to-pointer-to-char. There are no direct chars here.If he said this is a pointer to an array of five chars either you wrote it wrong, he said it wrong, or both. The proper decl for his description is char (*a)[5]; Side Note: Your char *a[5]; is an array of five pointers-to-char, so that doesn't match his description either. — WhozCraig
– WhozCraig, Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 19:30
Thats just the way I wrote it down on for the questions. Sorry that it was wrong, I didnt copy down what he said word for word but the important part would be that they use it to represent a string. What would be the advantage of having pointer to pointer to chars. — Roger
– Roger, Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 19:34

K Scott Piel · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-09 19:29:25Z

2

If you apply the right-left reading rule to that... a is an array of five pointers to a pointer to char.

answered Apr 9, 2013 at 19:29

K Scott Piel

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