Allocate a string array from inside a function in C

Question

I have a function that scans a file and returns the number of the lines along with the lines in a string array, my function looks like this :

int load_lines(         


        

Answer 1

If you want to return a newly allocated array of strings from the function, then the second argument of the function must have a type of char***, eg. a pointer to an array of strings:

int load_lines(char* _file, char*** _array) {
    ...
    char** tmparray = malloc(line_number * sizeof(char*));
    ...
        tmparray[line_number] = malloc(strlen(line_buffer) + 1);
        strcpy(tmparray[line_number], line_buffer);
    ...
    (*_array) = tmparray;
}

And when you call the function:

char** _array;
line_number = load_hosts(inname, &_array);