Its fine to just do char **strings;, char **strings = NULL, or char **strings = {NULL}
but to initialize it you'd have to use malloc:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(){
// allocate space for 5 pointers to strings
char **strings = (char**)malloc(5*sizeof(char*));
int i = 0;
//allocate space for each string
// here allocate 50 bytes, which is more than enough for the strings
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++){
printf("%d\n", i);
strings[i] = (char*)malloc(50*sizeof(char));
}
//assign them all something
sprintf(strings[0], "bird goes tweet");
sprintf(strings[1], "mouse goes squeak");
sprintf(strings[2], "cow goes moo");
sprintf(strings[3], "frog goes croak");
sprintf(strings[4], "what does the fox say?");
// Print it out
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++){
printf("Line #%d(length: %lu): %s\n", i, strlen(strings[i]),strings[i]);
}
//Free each string
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++){
free(strings[i]);
}
//finally release the first string
free(strings);
return 0;
}