Question

I need to make an array of strings for a program in one of my CS classes. We are to just assume that the length of all the strings is no more than 50 (this accounts for the null character).

I need use malloc() or calloc() to allocate the proper amount of memory for the array, but I am new to C and I don’t really know how to use those functions.

The real question I guess is how much memory to I need do allocate for an array of x strings of 50 characters.

Answer 1

\0 is called the termination character for strings.

What you need is array of char pointers.

char *strArrayPtr[X]; // X needs to be a compile time constant.
                      // C99 supports variable length arrays too.

Now each index holds pointer to an array that is allocated by malloc(50);

Example:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {

    char *ar[2] ;
    ar[0] = "Hello";  // This needs to malloced memory in your case
    ar[1] = "World!"; // i.e., ar[0] = malloc(50);

    printf("%s", ar[0]);
    return 0;
}