Are the x,y and row, col attributes of a two-dimensional array backwards?

Question

if I think of the x,y coordinate plane x,y is the common notation for an ordered pair, but if I use a two-dime array I have myArray[row][col] and row is the y and col is the x. Is that backwards or am I just thinking about it wrong? I was thinking it would look like myArray[x][y] but that's wrong if I want real rows and columns (like in a gameboard.) Wouldn't it be myArray[y][x] to truly mimic a row column board?

Answer 1

You have it right, and it does feel a bit backwards. the row number is a y coordinate, and the column number is an x coordinate, and yet we usually write row,col but we also usually write x,y.

Whether you want to write your array as [y][x] depends or [x][y] depends mostly on how much you actually care about the layout in memory (and if you do, what language you use). and whether you want to write functions/methods that can operate on rows or columns in isolation.

If you are writing C/C++ code, arrays are stored in Row Major Order which means that a single row of data can be treated as 1 dimensional array. But a single column of data cannot. If I remember correctly, VB uses column major order, so languages vary. I'd be surprised of C# isn't also row major order, but I don't know.