DC> ...At start of program I initialize the array to be safe..
   A good practice. I did so as well in the following example.
DC>  ... the function that checks ... and retrieves ...
   Doesn't look too bad. I took the liberty of concocting a
   sample of a similar function. Test it out once.
   You will need to supply a file name on the command line.
#include 
#include 
#include 
char *aryPhrase[30] = {NULL};
int get_phrases(char *szPhrase)
{
   int iIterator, iPhrase;
   char buf[80], *status;
   FILE *fpPhrase = fopen(szPhrase,"r");
   if(!fpPhrase)
   {
      printf("Fatal Error!  : Cannot find phrase-dictionary file."
         "\n\nEnsure that %s is in your game directory.", Phrasefile);
      exit(2);
   }
   for (iIterator = iPhrase = 0; iIterator < 30; iIterator++)
   {
      status = fgets(buf, 80, fpPhrase);
      if(status)
      {
         if(aryPhrase[iPhrase])
            free(aryPhrase[iPhrase]);
         aryPhrase[iPhrase] = malloc(strlen(buf) + 1);
         strcpy(aryPhrase[iPhrase], buf);
         iPhrase++;
      }
/*   If I were not going to immediately reassign the pointer,
     I would set it equal to NULL to avoid later confusion.  */
      else
         break;
   }
   fclose(fpPhrase);
   return iPhrase;
/*   function returns number of phrases it actually read   */
}
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
   int iterator, PhrzLimit = get_phrases(argv[1]);
   for(iterator = 0; iterator < PhrzLimit; iterator++)
   {
      printf(aryPhrase[iterator]);
      free(aryPhrase[iterator]);
      aryPhrase[iterator] = NULL;
   }
   return 0;
}

> ] I am Elvis of Borg. Thank you... Thank you very much........

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