Dynamic 2d Array

This my attempt at creating a dynamic 2d array. I am able to store the values into the array and read them out. Is there a more elegant way of inputing the values?

Code:

array[(i*4)+j]=count++;

instead of having to multiplying i*4.

Code:

#include<stdio.h>

int main(void){
	
        int *array;
        int column,row;	
	int i,j,count;

	printf("Please Enter the dimensions of the array:\n");
	
	printf("row=");
	scanf("%d",&row);
	printf("\n");
	
	printf("column=");
	scanf("%d",&column);
	printf("\n");
	
	printf("array[%d][%d]\n",row,column);
	
	array=(int *)malloc(row*column*sizeof(int));
	

	count=0;
	
	for(i=0;i<row;i++){
		for(j=0;j<column;j++)
			array[(i*4)+j]=count++; 
	}
	
	for(i=0;i<row;i++){
		for(j=0;j<column;j++)
			printf("%d ",array[(i*4)+j]);
		printf("\n");
	}
	
	free(array);
	
	return 0;
}

Provide a function to do the index computation for you?

Yeah. Consider that an int* can create a 1D array of ints. So you could conceive of dynamically allocating an array of int*'s from an int**. Then in turn you could allocate an array of ints from each int*.

That means you need many malloc calls (numRows*numColls), which isn't great. However, for an N-dimensional array you only need N dynamic memory calls. Here's how Salem suggests to do it, in C++. All that you need to know is that new dynamically allocates memory, much like malloc, and delete[] deletes the allocated memory, like free. Then you can access elements via: mBuffer[y][x] very easily.

Some notes (unrelated to the question ;-)
- compile with warnings enabled (your compiler would have said you need stdlib.h too for malloc/free)
- but in fact you don't need malloc/free here, c99 allows local arrays of dynamic length, this makes things simpler:

Code:

#include<stdio.h>

int main(void) {
        // int *array; no longer needed
        int column,row;	
        ...	
	printf("array[%d][%d]\n",row,column);
	
	int array[row*column];
        ...
	// free(array); no longer needed
	return 0;
}

you can also use array[row][column] and thus array[i][j] later in your code.

Originally Posted by lvl99

This my attempt at creating a dynamic 2d array. I am able to store the values into the array and read them out. Is there a more elegant way of inputing the values?

Code:

array[(i*4)+j]=count++;

instead of having to multiplying i*4.

Why use 2D notation for initializing the array when the array is really 1D.
You could use just one loop to intialize all the elements of the array as in.

Code:

for (i = 0; i < row*column; i++)
    array[i] = count++;

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Provide a function to do the index computation for you?

I'll probably do that.

Why use 2D notation for initializing the array when the array is really 1D.
You could use just one loop to initialize all the elements of the array as in.

Well, eventually I would like to write a program that can do matrix math, like finding the transpose, inverse and stuff like that. The initialization was used for testing.

- compile with warnings enabled (your compiler would have said you need stdlib.h too for malloc/free)
- but in fact you don't need malloc/free here, c99 allows local arrays of dynamic length, this makes things simpler:

I was getting warnings but I ignored them, since they weren't errors. When I add stdlib.h the warnings disappeared.

Yeah. Consider that an int* can create a 1D array of ints. So you could conceive of dynamically allocating an array of int*'s from an int**. Then in turn you could allocate an array of ints from each int*.

I'm sorry I couldn't really follow what you were saying. Is there another link that you can direct me to? Also, what does int** do?

Thanks, again.

I was getting warnings but I ignored them, since they weren't errors.

This is not recommended. C itself makes no distinction between warnings and errors. Thus what you consider just a warning can be a direct violation of C's rules. In such a case your compiler is simply choosing to do something it considers reasonable, but is not necessarily the way any other compiler might do it (alternatively, another compiler might consider the problem an error, not a warning).

All warnings of a good compiler should be paid attention to, whether or not your program compiles, and whether or not your program seems to run fine. Sometimes the result of code that causes a warning is a program that runs fine on your system, but fails on other systems. A real example is a program that assumes ints and pointers are the same size. They are on many systems, but a lot of modern 64-bit compilers have 32-bit ints and 64-bit pointers; so such an assumption breaks there. This, incidentally, is a problem directly related to the failure to include stdlib.h when using malloc().

For the record, I consider gcc to be a "good compiler" when invoked thus:

Code:

gcc -Wall -Wno-missing-braces -std=c99 -pedantic

Warnings from a gcc invoked like this are almost always worth looking at. If you're targeting POSIX, add -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=600 as well.

If you're using C89, then -std=c89 can be used instead of -std=c99. If you don't know what this means, I would recommend C99; others may not.

Originally Posted by itCbitC

Why use 2D notation for initializing the array when the array is really 1D.
You could use just one loop to intialize all the elements of the array as in.

Code:

for (i = 0; i < row*column; i++)
    array[i] = count++;

Yes, but only because the initialization pattern is amenable to that. Often times, it is not.

If the values being initialized depend on the row and column somehow, but you still want to trace linearly through the array, you can do this:

Code:

int i, j, n;
n = 0;
for(j = 0; j < numRows; j++)
{
    for(i = 0; i < numCols; i++, n++)
    {
        array[n] = someFunctionOf(i, j);
    }
}

Originally Posted by lvl99

I'm sorry I couldn't really follow what you were saying. Is there another link that you can direct me to? Also, what does int** do?

Thanks, again.

int** is just a pointer to int*. Nothing special.
A common way of creating a 2D array is basically first creating a pointer-to-pointer, which points to an array of pointers, which in turn points to another array of data (say, in this case, int):

Code:

int**:
    0: int*:
           0: int
           1: int
           2: int
           etc
    1: int*
    2: int*
    etc

It gives you a dynamic 2D array. If you wish, it is also possible to do it like this:

Code:

int (*p)[20] = malloc(rows * columns * sizeof(T));

20 being the number of columns.