C declarations: interpret the following declaration char **argv;

Introduction / Context:
Understanding multi-level pointers is essential in C, especially for command-line arguments and arrays of strings. The identifier argv is widely used in main's formal parameter list as char *argv, representing an array of C strings where each element is a char and the array itself is addressed via a pointer to pointer to char.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Declaration under analysis: char **argv;
• We are interpreting only the type, not storage duration or qualifiers.
• A typical use case is main(int argc, char **argv).

Concept / Approach:

char* means “pointer to char”. Adding another * yields char** which means “pointer to pointer to char”. This is commonly used for an array-of-pointers representation of strings, where argv points to the first element of an array of char* values, each of which points to the first character of a NUL-terminated string.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:

Indexing argv like argv[i] produces type char*, and dereferencing once *argv[i] yields char, consistent with a list of strings. This aligns with the standard practice of treating argv as an array of pointers to C strings.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

Pointer to pointer — Too vague; it does not specify the base type char.

Function pointer — No function declarator () is present.

Member of function pointer — Nonsensical in C terminology.

Common Pitfalls:

• Assuming char** is interchangeable with char*[]. They are related through array-to-pointer decay but not identical types in all contexts.
• Forgetting to allocate and terminate the array of pointers when constructing argv-like structures.

Final Answer:

argv is a pointer to a char pointer.