Two dimensional (2D) arrays in C programming
An array of arrays is known as 2D array. The two dimensional (2D) array in C programming is also known as matrix. A matrix can be represented as a table of rows and columns.
Initialization of 2D Array
There are two ways to initialize a two Dimensional arrays during declaration.
int disp[2][4] = { {10, 11, 12, 13}, {14, 15, 16, 17} };
OR
int disp[2][4] = { 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17};
Although both the above declarations are valid, I recommend you to use the first method as it is more readable, because you can visualize the rows and columns of 2d array in this method.
Things that you must consider while initializing a 2D array
We already know, when we initialize a normal array (or you can say one dimensional array) during declaration, we need not to specify the size of it. However that’s not the case with 2D array, you must always specify the second dimension even if you are specifying elements during the declaration. Let’s understand this with the help of few examples –
/* Valid declaration*/ int abc[2][2] = {1, 2, 3 ,4 } /* Valid declaration*/ int abc[][2] = {1, 2, 3 ,4 } /* Invalid declaration – you must specify second dimension*/ int abc[][] = {1, 2, 3 ,4 } /* Invalid because of the same reason mentioned above*/ int abc[2][] = {1, 2, 3 ,4 }
How to store user input data into 2D array
We can calculate how many elements a two dimensional array can have by using this formula: The array arr[n1][n2] can have n1*n2 elements.
2D array conceptual memory representation
Pointers & 2D array
As we know that the one dimensional array name works as a pointer to the base element (first element) of the array. However in the case 2D arrays the logic is slightly different. You can consider a 2D array as collection of several one dimensional arrays.
