As discussed in previous chapter, Arrays in C# will support multi-dimensional arrays. In c#, a multidimensional array is an array which contains a more than one dimension to represent the elements in tabular format like rows and columns.
In c#, multidimensional arrays can support either two or three dimensional series. To create multidimensional arrays, we need to use comma (,) separator inside the square brackets.
In c#, Multidimensional Arrays can be declared by specifying the data type of an elements followed by the square brackets [] with comma (,) separator. Following are the examples of creating two or three dimensional arrays in c# programming language.
// Two Dimensional Array
int[,] arr = new int[4, 2];
// Three Dimensional Array
int[, ,] arr1 = new int[4, 2, 3];
If you observe above examples, we created a two dimensional array (arr) with 4 rows, 2 columns and we created another array (arr1) with three dimensions 4, 2, 3.
In c#, we can initialize an arrays upon declaration. Following are the different ways of declaring and initializing multidimensional arrays in c# programming language.
// Two Dimensional Integer Array
int[,] intarr = new int[3, 2] {
{ 4, 5 },
{ 5, 0 },
{ 3, 1 }
};
// Two Dimensional Integer Array without Dimensions
int[,] intarr1 = new int[,] { { 4, 5 }, { 5, 0 }, { 3, 1 } };
// Three Dimensional Array
int[, ,] array3D = new int[2,2,3] { { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } },
{ { 7, 8, 9 }, { 10, 11, 12 } } };
// Three Dimensional Array without Dimensions
int[, ,] array3D1 = new int[,,] { { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } },
{ { 7, 8, 9 }, { 10, 11, 12 } } };
If you observe above examples, we declared and initialized a two dimensional array with 3 rows and 2 columns and three dimensional array with 2, 2, 3 dimensions.
In second and fourth statements, while declaration we initialized an arrays with values, but without specifying any dimensions. Here, the dimensions of an array can be determined by the number of elements so the dimension initializers are not required if we are assigning an elements during the initialization.
Following diagram will illustrate more details about how multidimensional arrays will be divided into rows and columns in c# programming language.
If you observe above diagram, we defined a two dimensional array with 3 rows, 2 columns and inserting the elements in an array based on the defined number of elements.
In c#, we can access the values of a multidimensional arrays by using row index and column index values.
Following is the example of accessing an elements from multidimensional arrays in c# programming language based on our requirements.
// Two Dimensional Array
int[,] arr2D = new int[3, 2] {
{ 4, 5 },
{ 5, 0 },
{ 3, 1 }
};
// Three Dimensional Array
int[, ,] array3D = new int[2,2,3] {
{ { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } },
{ { 7, 8, 9 }, { 10, 11, 12 } }
};
Console.WriteLine(arr2D[1, 0]); // 5
Console.WriteLine(array3D[1,1,1]); // 11
If you observe above example, we are accessing an elements of two or three dimensional arrays by passing index values.
Following is the example of using a multidimensional arrays in c# programming language to represent the elements in an array with multiple dimensions.
using System;
namespace Tutlane
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Two Dimensional Array
int[,] array2D = new int[3, 2] { { 4, 5 }, { 5, 0 }, { 3, 1 } };
// Three Dimensional Array
int[, ,] array3D = new int[2, 2, 3] { { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } }, { { 7, 8, 9 }, { 10, 11, 12 } } };
Console.WriteLine("---Two Dimensional Array Elements---");
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
Console.WriteLine("a[{0},{1}] = {2}", i, j, array2D[i, j]);
}
}
Console.WriteLine("---Three Dimensional Array Elements---");
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
{
for (int k = 0; k < 3; k++)
{
Console.WriteLine("a[{0},{1},{2}] = {3}", i, j, k, array3D[i, j, k]);
}
}
}
Console.WriteLine("Press Enter Key to Exit..");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
If you observe above example, we created a two and three dimensional arrays and getting those array values by using for loop in c#.
When we execute above c# program, we will get the result like as shown below.
If you observe above result, we are able to get the two or three dimensional arrays by using respective index values based on our requirements.
In c#, multidimensional arrays are slower than single dimensional arrays while accessing an elements from arrays. Instead of multidimensional arrays, we can use jagged arrays in c# to improve the performance of application.
This is how we can use multidimensional arrays in our c# applications based on our requirements.