#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

/* 
 * Split a string into parts given a single separator character,
 * If we have a string: aaa|bb|c, and split by '|', then the result
 * will be: [['a','a','a','\0'], ['b','b','\0'], ['c','\0']].
 * Note: for simplicity, this function splits by only a single char
 */
char **split_by_char(const char x, const char *s) {
	char **parts;
	int i, n, nc, 
		len = strlen(s), content_length = 0,
		num_parts = 1;
	
	/* Figure out how many parts we will split s into. I was lazy and
	   didn't feel like making a more optimized version by putting this
	   elsewhere.
	 */
	for(i = 0; i < len-1; i++) {
		if(s[i] == x) {
			num_parts++;
			
			/* skip multiple adjacent separators */
			for (; i < len-1 && s[i] == x; i++)
				;
		}
		content_length++;
	}
	
	/* allocate row pointers */
	if((parts = (char **) malloc(sizeof(char *) * num_parts)) == NULL) {
		printf("Could not allocate space for the parts array.");
		exit(1);
	}		
	
	/* Separate the string and allocate col pointers */
	i = 0;
	/* Go through the split sections */
	for(n = 0; n < num_parts; n++) {
		nc = 1;
		
		/* allocate no space */
		parts[n] = (char *) calloc(0, sizeof(char));
		
		for(; i < len; i++, nc++) {
			if(s[i] == x)
				break;
			
			/* make space to push a char onto the array */
			parts[n] = (char *) realloc(parts[n], sizeof(char) * nc);
			parts[n][nc - 1] = s[i];
		}
		
		/* add a null character to the string */
		parts[n] = (char *) realloc(parts[n], sizeof(char) * (nc+1));
		parts[n][nc] = '\0';
		
		/* increment the char count past the separator */
		i++;
	}
	
	return parts;
}

int main() {
	
	char **parts = split_by_char('|', "aaaa|bbb|cc");
	
	int i, len = sizeof(parts);
		
	for(i = 0; i < len; i++) {
		printf("%s\n", parts[i]);
	}
	
	return 0;
}