Yes, a char is a character. But char*, is a pointer to an character. And char** is a pointer to a pointer to a character (array).

Ok some examples:
in Perl: 

#!usr/bin/perl -w
use warnings;
my @list = ("a1", "b23", "c45", "d1");
print join (" ",@list),"\n"; 
#prints: a1 b23 c45 d1

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In Perl, the list "knows" how big it is.
This is not true in C! In C we have to do stuff to help things out! Like this: 
include <stdio.h>
int main ()
{
   char *list[] = {"a1", "b23", "c45", "d1",'\0'};
   // list is an array of pointers to chars 
   char **mover;
  
   for (mover=list; *mover ;mover++)
       printf ("%s ",*mover);
   printf("\n"); 
}
// prints: a1 b23 c45 d1

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For me, the difference is obvious! The Perl version is cool!
The alternative way in C would be to keep track of the number of items in the list array instead of a NULL value sentinel (and yes, there are more ways than than one I showed above). All ways are a pain in the rear compared with Perl!

Perl lists may be changed at will just like in C. I don't understand this comment: "lists are unmutable". Please explain, I just don't understand what you mean.

In reply to Re^5: Perl vs C by Marshall
in thread Perl vs C by santhosh_89

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