Question

Please tell me what does the parameter (char* s) means?? Can it accept an array of characters or it will just accept pointers. Please also tell how can i make this to accept an array of strings and then dynamically assign memory depending on the length of the string.

Answer 1

Technically, it’s a pointer to a single char variable. However, it can also be the pointer to the first element of an array of char values. You can increment and decrement the pointer to move through the string (s++ or s--) as long as you don’t go beyond the ends.

You can also use indexing without changing the pointer, such as s[14] = 'a';.

Using it as a pointer to a char array is usually the case when you’re dealing with C-style strings.

In addition, a char array will decay to the pointer to its first element under many circumstances, such as passing to a function:

void fn (char *s) {
    printf ("%s\n", s);
}
:
char xyz[50];
strcpy (xyz, "Hello");
fn (xyz);

For an array of strings in C, you would use char **, a pointer to and array of char pointers.

For C++, you should probably ditch char pointers (for strings) and pass-by-pointer altogether. Use std::string and reference types.