The C programming language allows multidimensional arrays. Here is the general form of a multidimensional array declaration −

type name[size1][size2]...[sizeN];

For example, the following declaration creates a three dimensional (5 x 10 x 4) integer array:

int arr[5][10][4];

Two-dimensional Arrays

The simplest form of multidimensional array is the two-dimensional array. A two-dimensional array is, in essence, a list of one-dimensional arrays. To declare a two-dimensional integer array of dimensions m x n, we can write as follows:

type arrayName[m][n];

Where type can be any valid C data type (int, float, etc.) and arrayName can be any valid C identifier. A two-dimensional array can be visualized as a table with m rows and n columns. Note: The order does matter in C. The array int a[4][3] is not the same as the array int a[3][4]. The number of rows comes first as C is a row-major language.

A two-dimensional array a, which contains three rows and four columns can be shown as follows:

Thus, every element in the array a is identified by an element name of the form a[i][j], where a is the name of the array, i represents which row, and j represents which column. Recall that rows and columns are zero indexed. This is very similar to mathematical notation for subscripting 2-D matrices.

Initializing Two-Dimensional Arrays

Multidimensional arrays may be initialized by specifying bracketed values for each row. The following define an array with 3 rows where each row has 4 columns.

int a[3][4] = {  
   {0, 1, 2, 3} ,   /*  initializers for row indexed by 0 */
   {4, 5, 6, 7} ,   /*  initializers for row indexed by 1 */
   {8, 9, 10, 11}   /*  initializers for row indexed by 2 */
};

The nested braces, which indicate the intended row, are optional. The following initialization is equivalent to the previous example:

int a[3][4] = {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11};

While the method of creating arrays with nested braces is optional, it is strongly encouraged as it is more readable and clearer.

Accessing Two-Dimensional Array Elements

An element in a two-dimensional array is accessed by using the subscripts, i.e., row index and column index of the array. For example −

int val = a[2][3];