How to return an array of strings from a function in a COM module?

Question

My function body is as below

STDMETHODIMP CMyCustomAddin::getArray(SAFEARRAY** pArray)
{
    AFX_MANAGE_STATE(AfxGetStaticModuleState());

    try {
        CComSafeArray<BSTR> sa(3);

        // 'v' is a std::vector<std::wstring>
        std::vector<std::string> v;
        v.push_back("string1"); v.push_back("string2"); v.push_back("string3");
        for (LONG i = 0; i < 3; i++)
        {
            CComBSTR bstr = ToBstr(v[i]);
            HRESULT hr = sa.SetAt(i, bstr.Detach(), FALSE);
            if (FAILED(hr))
            {
                AtlThrow(hr);
            }
        }

        *pArray= sa.Detach();
    }
    catch (const CAtlException& e)
    {
        AfxMessageBox(_T("Exception"));
    }
    return S_OK;
}

And I called this function from another COM module as:

SAFEARRAY** arr;
pMyCUstomAddinObj->getArray(arr);

I am getting access violation exception at

*pArray= sa.Detach();

How to get the array and traverse it?

Answer 1

SAFEARRAY** arr;
pMyCUstomAddinObj->getArray(arr);

With this initialization pArray points to garbage, thus *pArray = ... is an error. Perhaps you meant to write:

SAFEARRAY* arr;
pMyCUstomAddinObj->getArray(&arr);