convert vector into char** C++

Question

I have a vector variable. I need to pass it onto a method which accepts char**as an input parameter.

how to do this ? If

Answer 1

Galik's answer has a number of safety issues. Here is how I would do it in Modern C++:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

void old_func(char** carray, std::size_t size)
{
    for(std::size_t i(0); i < size; ++i)
        std::cout << carray[i] << '\n';
}

void other_old_func(const char** carray, std::size_t size)
{
    for(std::size_t i(0); i < size; ++i)
        std::cout << carray[i] << '\n';
}

int main()
{
    {
        std::cout << "modifiable version\n";
        std::vector<std::string> strings{"one", "two", "three"};
        std::vector<char*> cstrings{};

        for(auto& string : strings)
            cstrings.push_back(&string.front());

        old_func(cstrings.data(), cstrings.size());

        std::cout << "\n\n";
    }
    {
        std::cout << "non-modifiable version\n";
        std::vector<std::string> strings{"four", "five", "six"};
        std::vector<const char*> cstrings{};

        for(const auto& string : strings)
            cstrings.push_back(string.c_str());

        other_old_func(cstrings.data(), cstrings.size());
        std::cout << std::endl;
    }
}

No messy memory management or nasty const_casts.

Live on Coliru.

Outputs:

modifiable version
one
two
three


non-modifiable version
four
five
six

Answer 2

It is possible to solve the problem without copying out all the std::strings as long as the function does not modify the passed in char**. Otherwise I can see no alternative but to copy out everything into a new char**` structure (see second example).

void old_func(char** carray, size_t size)
{
    for(size_t i = 0; i < size; ++i)
        std::cout << carray[i] << '\n';
}

int main()
{
    std::vector<std::string> strings {"one", "two", "three"};
    std::vector<char*> cstrings;
    cstrings.reserve(strings.size());

    for(size_t i = 0; i < strings.size(); ++i)
        cstrings.push_back(const_cast<char*>(strings[i].c_str()));

    // Do not change any of the strings here as that will
    // invalidate the new data structure that relies on
    // the returned values from `c_str()`
    //
    // This is not an issue after C++11 as long as you don't
    // increase the length of a string (as that may cause reallocation)

    if(!cstrings.empty())
        old_func(&cstrings[0], cstrings.size());
}

EXAMPLE 2: If the function must modify the passed in data:

void old_func(char** carray, size_t size)
{
    for(size_t i = 0; i < size; ++i)
        std::cout << carray[i] << '\n';
}

int main()
{
    {
        // pre C++11
        std::vector<std::string> strings {"one", "two", "three"};

        // guarantee contiguous, null terminated strings
        std::vector<std::vector<char>> vstrings;

        // pointers to rhose strings
        std::vector<char*> cstrings;

        vstrings.reserve(strings.size());
        cstrings.reserve(strings.size());

        for(size_t i = 0; i < strings.size(); ++i)
        {
            vstrings.emplace_back(strings[i].begin(), strings[i].end());
            vstrings.back().push_back('\0');
            cstrings.push_back(vstrings.back().data());
        }

        old_func(cstrings.data(), cstrings.size());
    }

    {
        // post C++11
        std::vector<std::string> strings {"one", "two", "three"};

        std::vector<char*> cstrings;   
        cstrings.reserve(strings.size());

        for(auto& s: strings)
            cstrings.push_back(&s[0]);

        old_func(cstrings.data(), cstrings.size());
    }
}

NOTE: Revised to provide better code.

Answer 3

The top rated answers for this question expect you to pass in a size with your char** parameters. But in method_to_be_called() there is no way to pass in a size for par2 and par3 so these lists of c-style strings probably expect to be null terminated. In other words the last string (char*) in the list of strings (char **) needs to be a null pointer. This is a common paradigm in many c libraries.

int method_to_be_called(char* par1, char ** par2, char ** par3, void* pRetValue);

The most expedient way around this is probably to go with a more c-style answer.

//directly create char** par2
std::vector<std::string> par2Vect{"one", "two", "three"};
char ** par2 = (char**) malloc( sizeof(char*)*(par2Vect.size() + 1) );
for(size_t i = 0; i < par2Vect.size(); ++i)
{
    par2[i] = strdup(par2Vect[i].c_str());
}
// set the last entry to null to signify the end of the list
par2[par2Vect.size()] = nullptr;

// call your library
method_to_be_called(..., par2,...);

// delete par2
for(size_t i = 0; i < par2Vect.size(); ++i)
{
    // free memory for each c-style string
    free(par2[i]);
}
// free memory for outer char* array 
free(par2);