difference between char (*test)[] vs char *test1[] and how elegantly initialize test?

Question

just excersize from stroustrup: declare and initialize pointer of string array. I can do

char *test1[]={"ddd"}

but can't

char (*test)[] ={"dfsdf"}.

which is difference between these declarations and how initialize second ?

Answer 1

First is an array of pointers to the type char .
Second is a pointer to array of type char .

This small code snippet should be good to understand the difference:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
int main()
{
   char *test1[]={"ddd","aaa"};
   printf("[%s]",test1[0]);   
   printf("[%s]",test1[1]);   

   char arr[]={"bbb"};
   char (*test2)[] = &arr;
   printf("[%s]",*test2);

   return 0;
}

Output:

[ddd][aaa][bbb]

test1 is a array of pointers, each subscript of this array points to character string.
test1[0] & test1[1] allow you to obtain the content being pointed.

test2 is pointer to another array. Dereferencing the pointer *test2 gives you the array being pointed to.

Answer 2

You have created an array of pointers with the following code:

char *test1[]={"ddd"};

The code below is a pointer to an array. "ddd" is implicitly an array of characters.

char *test1 = "ddd";