*varsize array as procedure parameter

Hi list,

I'm trying to create some functions that will handle lookups for arrays
with a variable number of dimensions.
The amount of array dimensions is not known at compile time.

What I'm doing now is:
- define a *varsize array as parameter.
- define another parameter that contains the amount of array indexes.
- in the procedure I have declared the same array with 32767 dimensions
as based, so it won't waste space.

When the procedure is called, the pointer in the procedure is set to the
array in the calling program. 
I have put a sample on  http://code.midrange.com/index.php?id=5916095c36


Everything works fine, expect that I must reference the array in the
calling program. 
But I want to protect against direct references from within the service
routine.
I cannot use the array parameter as const (no pointer to const parm
possible) or value (*varsize not allowed with value parm).

Is there a way to protect the original array other than by copying it?
And if I have to copy it locally what is the best way to do so. Using
the heap?
Am I missing somewhat somewhere?

Many thanks,

Arco Simonse
pgmr


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