C and pointers help

[lost-and-found]

Wow, it's been a while since I actually asked for help here, but here it goes.

I'm writing a C program that is using some pointers, pointers to pointers, etc.

Here's a small example of what my code needs to do

typedef struct{
  int num_tasks;
  int* task_list;   //a variable sized array of tasks 
} entry;
typedef struct{
  entry *ref_to_entry;
} entry_node_t;
int main(){
  /* some code here that is irrelevant */
  entry *user_entry;
  user_entry = (entry*) malloc (num_entries*sizeof(entry)); //assume num_entries is obtained from user input during runtime
  
  entry_node_t* entry_node;
  entry_node = (entry_node_t*) malloc(num_entries * sizeof(entry_node_t));
  for(int i=0;i<num_entries;i++)
   entry_node = &user_entry[i];
}

Basically, in the above code I would like entry_node to be an array of pointers to each user_entry. I know I could just store the index to entry inside entry_node, but I would like it to be a pointer so that I don't have to write:

entry[entry_node[j]].num_tasks;

but instead use

entry_node[j]->num_tasks;

Am I doing something wrong? I try to compile and it compiles, but it doesn't seem to allocate space for entry_node.

[Rootstonian]

I forget the exact syntax, but can you try to "catch" the exception if malloc fails?

That one program way back when messed with my head too...an array of pointers to pointers...ugh! ROFL

Good Luck...if you need more help I will, but this stuff gives me headaches!!

I thought we coded something like: int **data_ptr;