fgets "Access violation writing location 0xCCCCCCCC." error

Question

Error: Unhandled exception at 0x60092A8D (msvcr110d.dll) in C_Son60.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation writing location 0xCCCCCCCC.

When below code executed this error code is given.(Compiles successfully) Where is my mistake?

#include <stdio.h>

int i;

int main(void){

char *names[3];

//get the names of the cities
puts("Enter names of cities");
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
    fgets( names[i], 99, stdin);
}
//print entered names
for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
    printf("%s", *names[i]);
}

getch();
}

Answer 1

2 things:

1. you need to allocate the strings you created- you can do it with malloc(100 * sizeof(char))
2. when printing you do *names[i] which means - **(names + i).

all you need is names[i]

use the code:

#include <stdio.h>

int i;

int main(void){
    char *names[3];

    //get the names of the cities
    puts("Enter names of cities");
    for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
    {
        names[i] = (char *)malloc(100 * sizeof(char));
        fgets( names[i], 99, stdin);
    }
    //print entered names
    for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
    {
        printf("%s", names[i]);
    }

    getch();
}