find the number of strings in an array of strings in C

Question

char* names[]={\"A\", \"B\", \"C\"};

Is there a way to find the number of strings in the array. Like, for example in this case, it has to be 3. Ple

Answer 1

What you're defining here isn't literally an array of strings , it's an array of pointers to characters. if you want to know the number of strings, you simply have to count the pointers, so something like

size_t size = sizeof(names)/sizeof(char*);

would do,this way you're dividing the size of the array by the size of a single pointer.But be aware this only works if the size of the array is known at compile time(i.e. the array is allocated statically), if it's defined dynamically (i.e. char** strings) then sizeof(strings) would return the size of the pointer not the array.

p.s.:the length of the strings is not relevant, as the array isn't even "aware" of what the pointers point to.