How can i return a pointer to char[][][] from function?

Question

I have a static-char array defined as:

static const char city_names[1000][4][50];

And i want to return a pointer to this variable from functions, i try a static_cast to void* but it fail. How can i return a pointer to char[][][] ?

Answer 1

A pointer to the array (more precisely to the first element of the array if you will initialize it with the array) can be declared like

static const char city_names[1000][4][50];

const char ( *p )[4][50] = city_names;

So a function declaration that returns such a pointer can look like

const char ( *f( /* some parameters */ ) )[4][50];

And within the function you may just write

return city_names;

That is if you have an array declared like

T a[N1][N2][N3];

where T is some type specifier and N1, N2, N3 are constants that specify sizes of the array then you may rewrite the declaration like

T ( a[N1] )[N2][N3];

To get a pointer to the element type of the array just substitute the record ( a[N1] ) for a declarator of pointer like

T ( *p )[N2][N3] = a;