2D arrays and storing characters

[John_L]

I want to read in a file of characters and store each character inside a 2D array. The array will be 8x8 and the file will always contain the same dimensions of characters. I want to treat the array as a 1D array, access the memory allocated for it at array[0][0] and start filling it all the way up to
array[7][7]. I don't want to use two for loops, with subscripting like [0][0], just look it as an array from 0-63, array[63] would be the last element....but only in memory, in reality it would still be a 2D array. How can I access the beginning of the array all the way to the end element by element? Will using array[0], array[1] etc.. just give me the entire row? Any help would be appreciated.

char actual_array[8][8];
int arr* = &actual_array[0][0]; //pointer to the beginning or the array
int j = 0;

while( (ch = fgetc( theFile )) != feof( input ) )
{
    if( j < (8*8) )
    {
        arr[ j++ ] = ch; //is this right? can I advance the pointer like this?
    }
}

[mike_g]

Yes I'm pretty sure that would be possible, but first you have a few problems. First off you have an integer pointer to a char, you should be using a char pointer for it. Also your asterisk for the pointer is on the wrong side of the variable name. This should look like:

    char actual_array[8][8];
    char *arr = &actual_array[0][0];

[John_L]

thanks, what about passing arrays as parameters to a function. I want to use a char *array to hold full length strings of file names.

main()
{
char *array[4] //4 files

array[0] = "somefile.txt";
...
...
...

myfunction( array[0] ); // pass the file name

}

myfunction( char *file ) //is this acceptable?
{

fopen( file, "w" );  //will it now open somefile.txt?

}

[vart]

it should be const char *
you also missing return types of main and myfunction

[John_L]

I just jotted the functions down quickly as an example, I also don't think return statments are necessary unless following proper practices, but that's a debate for another time. I don't really care about protecting the date by using the const keyword. I simply want to pass a string as a parameter for reading the file in myfunction. Since I technically store a string in the array in main(), I want to pass that "string" to myfunction(). Is my code adequate as it is, i.e. will it do the job i just described? Or is my method of reasoning flawed?

Because from what I see of the code, when I call fopen, it has a pointer as an argument which points to "somefile.txt" in memory, so that command will execute and do what it is supposed to do....