1. playing with string manipulation, 2. function to sort dynamically alocated string array in visual c++

 #include "stdafx.h"  
 #include <string.h>     //header for string manipulation  
 #include <cstdlib>     //header for malloc  
   
 #define COL 300  
 bool sortStr(char(*str)[COL], int n)  
 {     //function to sort string array   
      if( str == NULL )     return false;  
      char tmp[COL];  
      for(int i=0; i<n-1; ++i)  
      {  
           for(int j=i+1; j<n; ++j)  
           {  
                if( strcmp(str[i], str[j]) > 0 )  
                {                      
                     strcpy_s(tmp, str[i]);  
                     strcpy_s(str[i], str[j]);  
                     strcpy_s(str[j], tmp);  
                }  
           }  
      }  
      return true;  
 }  
 int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])  
 {  
      int ncp = 4;                     //for string array  
      //dynamic allocation of string array
      char(*str0)[COL] = (char(*)[COL])malloc(sizeof(char)*ncp*COL);  
   
      int id0 = 9, id1 = 12;       
      strcpy_s(str0[0], "s");          //input your string  
      strcpy_s(str0[1], "e");  
      char tmp[COL];  
      sprintf_s(tmp, "%d", id1);      //input int value (id1) into string tmp  
      strcat_s(str0[0], tmp);         //concatenate multiple strings into str[0]  
      sprintf_s(tmp, "%d", id0);  
      strcat_s(str0[1], tmp);  
      strcpy_s(str0[2], "e1");  
      strcpy_s(str0[3], "s2");       
      for(int i=0; i<ncp; ++i)  
           printf("str0[%d]:%s\n", i, str0[i]);  
      printf("--\n");  
             
      char(*str1)[COL] = (char(*)[COL])malloc(sizeof(char)*ncp*COL);  
      strcpy_s(str1[0], "e9");  
      strcpy_s(str1[1], "s12");  
      strcpy_s(str1[2], "e1");  
      strcpy_s(str1[3], "s3");  
   
      for(int i=0; i<ncp; ++i)  
           printf("str1[%d]:%s\n", i, str1[i]);  
   
      printf("\n=======compare=======\n");  
      printf("====before sorting===\n");  
      for(int i=0; i<ncp; ++i)  
      {  
           int res = strcmp(str0[i], str1[i]);     //compare 2 strings value based on ASCII  
           printf("str[%d]: %d\n", i, res);  
      }  
   
      printf("\n=======sort=======\n");  
        
      if( sortStr(str0, ncp) == true )  
      {  
           for(int i=0; i<ncp; ++i)  
                printf("str0[%d]:%s\n", i, str0[i]);  
      }  
             
      printf("--\n");  
        
      if( sortStr(str1, ncp) == true )  
      {  
           for(int i=0; i<ncp; ++i)  
                printf("str0[%d]:%s\n", i, str1[i]);  
      }       
   
      printf("\n=======compare=======\n");  
      printf("====after sorting====\n");  
      for(int i=0; i<ncp; ++i)  
      {  
           int res = strcmp(str0[i], str1[i]);  
           printf("str[%d]: %d\n", i, res);  
      }  
 } 

result

str0[0]:s12
str0[1]:e9
str0[2]:e1
str0[3]:s2
--
str1[0]:e9
str1[1]:s12
str1[2]:e1
str1[3]:s3

=======compare=======
====before sorting===
str[0]: 1
str[1]: -1
str[2]: 0
str[3]: -1

=======sort=======
str0[0]:e1
str0[1]:e9
str0[2]:s12
str0[3]:s2
--
str0[0]:e1
str0[1]:e9
str0[2]:s12
str0[3]:s3

=======compare=======
====after sorting====
str[0]: 0
str[1]: 0
str[2]: 0
str[3]: -1