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If you don't mind the extra memory, you can do it with an extra array:

```c
struct basket {
    char *item_memory;
    char **items;
    int itemcount;
};

/* I omitted any error handling */
void initialize(basket *b, int itemlen, int itemcount) {
    int item_index;
    b->item_memory = malloc(itemlen * itemcount);
    b->items = malloc(sizeof(char*) * itemcount);
    b->itemcount = itemcount;
    for (item_index = 0; item_index < itemcount; ++item_index)
        b->items[item_index] = item_memory + itemlen ** item_index;
}
```
Of course here the actual storage is not in `*items` but in `*item_memory`. You cannot avoid that if you want to use double index on `items`; the only thing in C you can apply the index operator to are pointers, therefore `*index` must be a pointer.