Question

Simple one line stopping code from compiling, what is wrong?

char *words[256] = new char[numOfWords][256];

array must be initialized with a brace-enclosed initializer

Answer 1

You declared an array of 256 pointers to char. The error message is clear – arrays need to be initialized with a brace-enclosed initializer. So if you want to keep your declaration, do this:

char* words[256] = { new char[wordlength], ... };
       //   ^^^ this is effectively your numOfWords

Alternatively, you can leave out the initialization altogether and assign individual elements later, say in a loop. Note that, if you allocate elements dynamically, you’re also responsible for deleting them properly.

If you want a pointer to an array of arrays of 256 chars, then this:

char (*words)[256] = new char[numOfWords][256];