Question

I’m currently learning C and am struggling with how to iterate through an array of strings.
Let’s just say I define an array, like so:

char* argv_custom[] = {"--debug", "--verbose", "--test", "--ultimate"};

Now, how would I go about determining the number of strings within argv_custom? (e.g. argc_custom)
Am I going the right way about this in the first place? Also, is it possible to do something like:

Pseudocode

if ('--debug' in argv_custom) { // do stuff }

Answer 1

Now, how would I go about determining the number of strings within argv_custom?

The canonical way:

int argc_custom = sizeof(argv_custom) / sizeof(argv_custom[0]);

Note: This only works on the array itself, as soon as you have a pointer (such as if you pass argv_custom to a function), it no longer works:

char **p = argv_custom;
int argc_custom = sizeof(p) / sizeof(p[0]);  // No me gusta

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is it possible to do something like: …

There’s no shortcut. You would have to iterate over each string, and do strcmp. Of course, you could (and probably should) wrap this behaviour into a function.