how to access array outside its scope

here is a sample pseudo code of what i want to perform( i am using dev c++)

Code:

 main()
{
  int r,c;
  cin>>r>>c;
  
  int a[r][c];
}

void f1()
{
  ....
  ....
}

i want to access array a inside f1(). i can't pass array a as argument because then in the function prototype of f1 it will have to be of fixed size (like a[5][5]). so is there a way to access a inside other blocks. i tried :: operator but it won't work.

No, the :: (scoping) operator cannot be used as you describe.

Your creation of the array a is illegal in C++, anyway, so it's a moot point that you can't access it directly from f1(). And main() returns int.

In C++, I'd use this (assuming f1() does not intend to change the passed information);

Code:

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>

void f1(const std::vector<std::vector<int> > &);

int main()
{
     int r,c;
     std::cin >> r >> c;

     std::vector<std::vector<int> > a(r, std::vector<int>(c));

     f1( a);
}

void f1(const std::vector<std::vector<int> > &a)
{
    //   use a here
}

This is legal, as vectors carry their size information with them .... and so do vectors of vectors.