[swift-users] Working with const char** with Swift 3

[Ron Olson]

Hi all-

So I've been working on this for hours and I'm just stuck. In C I'd 
write something like:

const char* a_string_array[] = {"aloha", "world", "from beautiful 
Waikiki Beach"};
haveFun(a_string_array);

and haveFun is:

void haveFun(const char** data) {
     printf("%s\n", data[0]);
     printf("%s\n", data[1]);
     printf("%s\n", data[2]);
}

So I'm trying to do something similar in Swift 3-REL (working in Linux) 
and the best I've been able to come up with is:

func haveSwiftFun(data: 
Optional<UnsafeMutablePointer<Optional<UnsafePointer<Int8>>>>, 
count:UInt32) {
  for _ in 0...count {
           if let parm = params?.pointee! {
               let tempBuf = String(cString: 
(UnsafePointer<Int8>(parm)!))
  			  print(tempBuf)
           }
       }
}

But I'm not actually iterating through the array, I'm just getting the 
first element count times.

I've been all over the usual places on the web (SO, Apple Docs, etc.), 
and have cobbled together something like:

let buffer = UnsafeBufferPointer(start:(params?.pointee!)!, count:count)
let anArray = Array(buffer)

which gives me an [Int8], but I can't figure out how to get the actual 
char array from the anArray elements, with the hope of turning each 
element into its own String.

I'm feeling I've run off the rails here and am hoping somebody might 
have some info on how to properly deal with working with a const char** 
in Swift 3. I'm sure/not sure it'll be an obvious 'ah ha!' moment, but 
that moment seems very very far away. :(

Thanks for any help,

Ron
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