Passing an array of char arrays using plain old data types

[Mike Pliam]

I need to write a wrapper for some classes that make extensive use of STL string vectors in order to build a DLL that will work with varous CRTs. To do that, I need to find a way to input an array of char arrays using plain old data types (int, char, etc..) to simulate a std::vector<string>. While at first this seems like a relatively simple problem, considering how easy it is to accomplish using int, or float, I have been completely stymied when it comes to building and passing char array arrays.

Using a double array, for example:

void Func1(double * fvec, int n)
{
	cout << "Here's the vector in Func1:" << endl;
	for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) 
		cout << fvec[i] << endl;
}

int main()
{
	double * pvec = new double[9];
	pvec[0] = 0.123234;
	pvec[1] = 0.876765;
	pvec[2] = 0.776895;
	pvec[3] = 0.345456;
	pvec[4] = 0.474474;
	pvec[5] = 0.995845;
	pvec[6] = 0.765654;
	pvec[7] = 0.383338;
	pvec[8] = 0.098345;
	for(int i = 0; i < 9; i++) cout << pvec[i] << endl;

	Func1(pvec, 9);		// a vector from simple types

	delete [] pvec;

}

The same technique works for int, float, double, but not for char **. One technique that does sort of work is as follows:

	typedef char CharArray[100];
	CharArray * pca = new CharArray[9];
	strcpy_s(pca[0], 100, "bow");
	strcpy_s(pca[1], 100, "wow");
	strcpy_s(pca[2], 100, "now");
	strcpy_s(pca[3], 100, "cow");
	strcpy_s(pca[4], 100, "how");
	strcpy_s(pca[5], 100, "sow");
	strcpy_s(pca[6], 100, "dow");
	strcpy_s(pca[7], 100, "yow");
	strcpy_s(pca[8], 100, "mow");

But I havn't figured out how to pass such an char array pointer to a functions by value (Note that one cannot reliably pass even simple data types to a DLL function by reference).

I am simply too embarassed to show all of my failed attempts to accomplish this task. Basically, what needs to be done is:
1 - build a array of character arrays on the heap
2 - pass that array by value to a function that can use it
3 - delete the original array to free the heap

If someone could help me with this, I would be most appreciative.