What is the best way to make 2 dimensional array in C

Question

I want to make a 2 dimensional array in C.

I know 1 way to make it like this.

#include <stdlib.h>

void    my_func(int **arr)
{
        printf("test2: %d\n", arr[0][1]);
}

int     main(void)
{
        const int row = 3;
        const int col = 4;

        int **arr = (int **)malloc(sizeof(int *) * 3);
        arr[0] = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int) * 4);
        arr[1] = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int) * 4);
        arr[2] = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int) * 4);

        arr[0][0] = 1;
        arr[0][1] = 2;
        arr[0][2] = 3;
        arr[0][3] = 4;
        arr[1][0] = 3;
        arr[1][1] = 4;
        arr[1][2] = 5;
        arr[1][3] = 6;
        arr[2][0] = 5;
        arr[2][1] = 6;
        arr[2][2] = 7;
        arr[2][3] = 8;

        printf("test1: %d\n", arr[0][1]);

        my_func(arr);

}

In this case, the array can be passed to the function well as an argument. But it's not that pretty. If the array has lots of values (e.g 20*20), I need to type every single value line by line.

So I searched it and found out a way to make an array like this.

#include <stdio.h>

void    my_func(int **arr)
{
        printf("test2: %d", arr[0][1]);
}

int     main(void)
{
        const int row = 3;
        const int col = 4;

        int arr[row][col] = {
                {1,2,3,4},
                {3,4,5,6},
                {5,6,7,8}
        };
        printf("test1: %d", arr[0][1]);

        my_func(arr);
}

It's concise and don't make me exhausted. But something is wrong when array is passed to a function. And when compiling, there is a warning as below

test_2D_array.c:20:11: warning: incompatible pointer types passing 'int [3][4]' to
      parameter of type 'int **' [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]
                my_func(arr);
                        ^~~
test_2D_array.c:3:20: note: passing argument to parameter 'arr' here
void    my_func(int **arr)
                      ^
1 warning generated.

and Even the function can't access the array argument. There is a segmentation fault.

So I want to know the best way to make array which can be passed toany function as an argument and less exhausting than my first code.

Thank you for reading.

Answer 1

This

int **arr = (int **)malloc(sizeof(int *) * 3);

is not a declaration or allocation of a two-dimensional array

Here a one-dimensional array with the element type int * is created. And then each element of the one-dimensional array in turn points to an allocated one dimensional array with the element type int.

This declaration of a two-dimensional array

    const int row = 3;
    const int col = 4;

    int arr[row][col] = {
            {1,2,3,4},
            {3,4,5,6},
            {5,6,7,8}
    };

is incorrect. Variable length arrays (and you declared a variable length array) may not be initialized in declaration.

You could write instead

    enum { row = 3, col = 4 };

    int arr[row][col] = {
            {1,2,3,4},
            {3,4,5,6},
            {5,6,7,8}
    };

When such an array is passed to a function it is implicitly converted to pointer to its first element of the type int ( * )[col].

You could pass it to a function that has a parameter of the type of a variable length array the following way

void    my_func( size_t row, size_t col, int arr[row][col] )
{
        printf("test2: %d", arr[0][1]);
}

Or if to place the definition of the enumeration before the function declaration

    enum { row = 3, col = 4 };

then the function could be also declared like

void    my_func( int arr[][col], size_t row )
{
        printf("test2: %d", arr[0][1]);
}

Here is a demonstrative program that shows three different approaches. The first one when an array is defined with compile-time constants for array sizes. The second one when a variable length array is created. And the third one when a one-dimensional array of pointer to one-dimensional arrays are allocated dynamically.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

enum { row = 3, col = 4 };

void output1( int a[][col], size_t row )
{
    for ( size_t i = 0; i < row; i++ )
    {
        for ( size_t j = 0; j < col; j++ )
        {
            printf( "%d ", a[i][j] );
        }
        putchar( '\n' );
    }
}

void output2( size_t row, size_t col, int a[row][col] )
{
    for ( size_t i = 0; i < row; i++ )
    {
        for ( size_t j = 0; j < col; j++ )
        {
            printf( "%d ", a[i][j] );
        }
        putchar( '\n' );
    }
}

void output3( int **a, size_t row, size_t col )
{
    for ( size_t i = 0; i < row; i++ )
    {
        for ( size_t j = 0; j < col; j++ )
        {
            printf( "%d ", a[i][j] );
        }
        putchar( '\n' );
    }
}


int     main(void)
{
        int arr1[row][col] = 
        {
                {1,2,3,4},
                {3,4,5,6},
                {5,6,7,8}
        };

        output1( arr1, row );
        putchar( '\n' );

        const size_t row = 3, col = 4;

        int arr2[row][col];

        memcpy( arr2, arr1, row * col * sizeof( int ) );

        output2( row, col, arr2 );
        putchar( '\n' );

        int **arr3 = malloc( row * sizeof( int * ) );

        for ( size_t i = 0; i < row; i++ )
        {
            arr3[i] = malloc( col * sizeof( int ) );
            memcpy( arr3[i], arr1[i], col * sizeof( int ) );
        }

        output3( arr3, row, col );
        putchar( '\n' );

        for ( size_t i = 0; i < row; i++ )
        {
            free( arr3[i] );
        }

        free( arr3 );
} 

The program output is

1 2 3 4 
3 4 5 6 
5 6 7 8 

1 2 3 4 
3 4 5 6 
5 6 7 8 

1 2 3 4 
3 4 5 6 
5 6 7 8 

Pay attention to that the function output2 can be used with the array arr1 the same way as it is used with the array arr2.