is a pointer but what's ?

char* is a pointer to a char, char** is a pointer that points to a pointer to a char.

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Most common use of char** type is dereferencing an array of strings. For example, the days of the week is an array of strings.

Thanks!

char* typically points to an array of byte-wide characters (a string).
char** typically points to an array of strings. This is used as the second parameter to main(), for example, to point to the command line argument strings.

…though TobiSGD's description is more general (and accurate).

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can nest pointers an arbitrary number of levels, i.e. you can have a pointer to a pointer to a pointer (e.g. char***), right? Not that this would be necessary most of the time, but in theory I don't see why it shouldn't be possible… :-\

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Ok, thanks for the replies.

C and C++ types don't distinguish a pointer to something vs. a pointer to the first something in an array of something's.

So char* x; declares x as a pointer to char, but doesn't distinguish whether it points to an isolated char or a "C string", which is an array of char's.

So char** y; declares y as a pointer to pointer to char, but that allows multiple possibilities.
Does y point to a single char* or an array of them.
Does *y (or each of y[i]) point to a single char or an array of them.