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Asked: 2026-06-08T12:03:54+00:00

I have been trying to return an array of strings for a function for

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I have been trying to return an array of strings for a function for a couple of days to no avail. While I was searching around StackOverflow, I found that it would be a better idea to have a parameter that will be assigned the value of an array. So, here is my code example (not the actual usage, but a mockup of how I am trying to use the function). I am sorry if the code is a bit sloppy. I have been testing things out with it for a while.

void splitOn(string message, string delim, string***toCh) {

string** rString = new string*;
string lArr[numberOf(message, delim)+1];
for(int index=0; index<numberOf(message, delim)+2; index++) {

    lArr[index]=message.substr(0, message.find(delim)).c_str();

    message = message.substr(message.find(delim)+1, message.length());
rString[index]=&lArr[index];

cout << "IN LOOP "<<*rString[index]<<endl;
}
rString[numberOf(message, string(delim))] = &message;
toCh=&rString;
}

int main(){
string***arr;
splitOn("fox.over.lazy.dog", ".", arr);
cout << **arr[0]<<endl;

Note:

  • numberOf() takes a string and a delimiter(string) and returns how many times the delimiter is found within the string.

  • strings are from std::string

  • lArr (the local array within the loop) and *rString all give correct output.

  • Although I am trying to assign the array to a parameter, learning how to return an array is more appealing to me.

I could hack this together with a file and getLine(), but I would prefer to learn how to properly do this.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You’re trying to return local variables, which will never work. You and your caller need to agree on how to allocate the return value. In C++ as the commenters mention this would normally be done by passing a reference to a vector to handle your allocation for you.

    In C you have two options, you can either get the caller to pass in a big enough allocation, or use multiple calls to malloc in the callee (not forgetting the calls to free in the caller!)

    For instance, if you pass a writable character array, you can simply overwrite the separator characters with null characters to split it up into individual strings without having to allocate new copies.

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