Problem with C pointers in 2d char arrays

Split returns a pointer to a pointer to a char. So, what is returned from split(array[i],'=')[1] is a pointer to char which is what you declared on the stack and thus reserved space for it. That is why it works. The other two don't work because the space pointed to is not allocated. You should use malloc().

If you simply declare a pointer variable: char **temps; It's not really pointing to somewhere. Well, it actually is, but that's probably garbage (anywhere in memory). You have to initialize it before using it. Try allocating space for it.

char **temps was never allocated any space. You're dereferencing bad memory with temps[0].

man malloc() You have to allocate your memory to get space!

char **temps; temps[0]=temp2; //crashes The pointer, temps, is uninitialized. Dereferencing it is an undefined operation.

Because temps isn't initialized. It's a random value pointing to a random memory location.

Think of it this way: char *temp2 = "foo"; char **temps; temps[0] = temp2; // won't work temps = &temp2; // ok temp2 points at a C string. You can point temps at the address of temp2, (&temp2) but you can't dereference temps (that is, temps[0]) unless you first make it point at something valid. From your question it sounds like you want to malloc() an array of char* first. In the second and third cases, you are dereferencing temps[0] without first making it refer to some valid memory location. As has been pointed out, temps is pointing at a garbage location. Your first case works because you're dereferencing split(), so it's giving you a char*.