c - Fill an array with an array? -

i'm doing electronics: i've got 12 rgb leds in circle (i call heel wheel). i'll "pulsing" each led colour in line pre-defined "levels": see below, level02 example means colour led pulsed twice every 10 cycles... code cycle through 12 leds 1 @ time. 1 cycle = 12 leds... 10 cycles = 1 colour level loop

essentially want pixel[1] = colour1, or pixel[5] = colour9 etc... pixel array heelwheel below, , colour set of constant char arrays clred, clrrg etc... ok, more detail:

// color level definitions  #define level00 "0000000000"  #define level01 "1000000000"  #define level02 "1000010000" 

etc... level10

char heelwheel[12][3]; //wheel pixel: led, colour (red, green, blue)  // colour definitions: defining mix of colour levels 12 standard colours  //(12 coincidentally == number of leds: no particular reason)  const char *clred[3] = {level10, level00, level00} ; // full red const char *clrrb[3] = {level06, level00, level04} ; // red, bit of blue const char *clrab[3] = {level05, level00, level05} ; // purple 

etc... 12 colours

so want able set each of 12 "pixels" specifying 1 of 12 colours... e.g.

heelwheel[0] = clred ; heelwheel[1] = clrrb ; 

i hope it's clear i'm trying do... theory i've defined heelwheel 2 dimensional array: instead of individually setting 3 values in second dimension, want these 3 values = 3 values contained in three-value colour arrays

gcc error = "incompatible types when assigning type char *[3] type const char **"...  

i've tried understand numerous resources on arrays in c , stuff "sticking" i'm beginner @ c, i'm reaching headache territory quite quickly.

don't use string-like data types this, since strings represented arrays in c , arrays not assignable.

encode color in integer, typical choice uint32_t full 24-bit rgb, 8 bits spare.

then you'd have:

uint32_t heelwheel[12]; 

and colours defined so:

/* these assume red in msbs, blue in lsbs. */ const uint32_t red = 0xff0000; const uint32_t purple = 0xff00ff; const uint32_t yellow = 0xffff00; /* , on */ 

and can assign directly, no problems:

heelwheel[0] = red; heelwheel[1] = purple;