Arrays of pointers to arrays?

Question

I'm using a library which for one certain feature involves variables like so:

extern const u8 foo[];
extern const u8 bar[];

I am not allowed to rename these variables in any way.

However, I like to be able to access these variables through an array (or other similar method) so that I do not need to continually hardcode new instances of these variables into my main code.

My first attempt at creating an array is as follows:

const u8* pl[] = {
    &foo,
    &bar
};

This gave me the error cannot convert 'const u8 (*)[]' to 'const u8*' in initialization, and with help elsewhere along with some Googling, I changed my array to this:

u8 (*pl)[] = {
    &foo,
    &bar
};

Upon compiling I now get the error scalar object 'pl' requires one element in initializer.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

Answer 1

As the arrays don't have a size in their declaration is there any reason you can't just an array of pointers to their first elements?

E.g.

const u8* pl[] = { foo, bar };

If you wanted an array of pointers to arrays I think that you would need to do:

const u8 (*pl[])[] = { &foo, &bar };

but I don't see that it really has any advantage over the previous solution.

Answer 2

extern const int a[];

const int *  aa[] = { a };

Answer 3

An array of pointers to arrays only works if foo and bar have exactly the same size, and that size is known at compile time in your translation unit.

const u8 (*pl[])[32] = {&foo, &bar};

If that is not the case, you must use an array of pointers to bytes.

const u8 *pl[] = {foo, bar};

Answer 4

Remove the &. An array decays normally into a pointer.

typedef int u8;  // Using int as I don't know what a u8 is.

const u8 foo[] = { 1, 2, 3};
const u8 bar[] = { 1 };

const u8* pl[] = {
    foo,
    bar
};