Thread: Passing uninitialized 2D arrays as arguments in C

Hi, all. I've tried and tried to get my head around this, and feel I am almost there, but I'm getting so confused with how many '*' I need! I have a function that takes as input the string of a directory containing a data file, an int and pointers to two uninitialized 2D arrays. The function reads the data file and then allocates memory and fills the arrays accordingly.

This code is probably quite wrong, but the idea is:

Code:

void main()
{
  double **Array1;
  int **Array2;
  int dimension1;
  char DirWork[100], buff[100];

  f_ReadData(DirWork, dimension1, &Array1, &Array2);

  sprintf(buff,"%lf",Array1[0][0]); // Causes segmentation fault
  printf(buff);
}

and

Code:

void f_ReadData(char *DirWork, int dimension1, double ***Array1ptr, int ***Array2ptr)
{
  int ct, ct2;
  double **Array1 = *Array1ptr;
  int **Array2 = *Array2ptr;
  char FullDirArray1[100], FullDirArray2[100];
  FILE *d_Array1, *d_Array2;

  sprintf(FullDirArray1,"%s%s",DirWork,"Array1.dat");
  sprintf(FullDirArray2,"%s%s",DirWork,"Array2.dat");

  d_Array1=fopen(FullDirArray1,"r");
  d_Array2=fopen(FullDirArray2,"r");
  fscanf(d_Array1,"%d", &dimension1);

  Array1 = dmatrix(0,dimension1-1,0,3); // allocates memory to Array1 (dimension1 x 3) elements, using nrutil
  Array2 = imatrix(0,dimension1-1,0,3); // allocates memory to Array2 (dimension1 x 3) elements, using nrutil

  for(ct=0; ct<dimension1; ct++) 
  {
    for(ct2=0; ct2<3; ct2++)
    {
      fscanf(d_Array1, "%lf", &Array1[ct][ct2];
      fscanf(d_Array2, "%d", &Array2[ct][ct2];
    }
  }
  fclose(d_Array1);
  fclose(d_Array2);  
  Array1ptr = &Array1;
  Array2ptr = &Array2;

}

I've missed out error handling here, but I do have some of that in place... not that it's helping. I'm getting a segmentation fault when I try to access the arrays from the main function.

If anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it... I'm seeing *stars! Thank you!

The pointer code actually looks about right, but the printf is wrong (or at least non-standard). I could be missing something (haven't compiled yet), but most likely, the problem is that you're passing a straight string with no specifiers to printf (wrong) and then using %lf to format it earlier. Replace it with something like this:

Code:

printf("%f", Array1[0][0]);

Note that %f can print either doubles or floats.

Oh, and replace void main with int main.

Originally Posted by memcpy

The pointer code actually looks about right, but the printf is wrong (or at least non-standard). I could be missing something (haven't compiled yet), but most likely, the problem is that you're passing a straight string with no specifiers to printf (wrong) and then using %lf to format it earlier. Replace it with something like this:

Code:

printf("%f", Array1[0][0]);

Note that %f can print either doubles or floats.

Oh, and replace void main with int main.

Thanks for the suggestion. I somehow didn't know you could print numbers directly without converting them to strings first, so this will come in very handy! However, I don't think that's the only problem, as even when I comment out my sprintf and printf, I get the segmentation fault when I then try to use a value from Array2 (which is filled with ints) as a dimension for a new array...

Originally Posted by laserlight

Check: are you allocating memory for the dynamic arrays?

Yes - that's done by nrutil. I know the arrays are set up correctly within f_ReadData, as I can print them out within that function (if I comment out the parts that cause the segmentation fault in main)... I just don't have them in the main function, as I have errors when I try to access them. My best guess is that I must be trying to look at incorrect address space or the address hasn't even been set.

This post is also on StackOverflow.

Originally Posted by FloridaJo

This post is also on StackOverflow.

Yes, it is... but I hadn't got an answer there, and I really needed to get one ASAP. I thought I'd give it a go here, too... and it worked.

Originally Posted by laserlight

Oh, I see it now:

Code:

Array1ptr = &Array1;
Array2ptr = &Array2;

You should have written:

Code:

*Array1ptr = Array1;
*Array2ptr = Array2;

Otherwise you're just getting a pointer parameter to point to a local variable.

Thank you so much! I'm still really struggling to fully understand pointers, and obviously got this completely back-to-front. My code is now running perfectly. You're a star!

Will do. Thank you. I didn't know the etiquette, and didn't mean to seem deceptive.