If you come from a Java or C# perspective and want to create a multi-dimensional array in C or

C++, you'll soon figure out that multi-dimensional array allocation in C\C++ is not as simple,
plus you'll have to worry about deallocation since there is no garbage collector to do the work for
you. Below, I'll show four different sample codes showing how to work with a three dimensional
array in Java, C#, C++ and C, respectively.

Java 3D Array

In Java, creating a 3-dimensional array is as simple as saying:

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int[][][] array3D = new int[x][y][z];

You can then access the elements of the 3-dimensional array at array3D[i][j][k].

Sample Code

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public static void main(String[] args)
{
// Array 3 Dimensions
int x = 4, y = 5, z = 6;

// Array Iterators
int i, j, k;

// Allocate 3D Array
int[][][] array3D = new int[x][y][z];

// Access array elements

for (i = 0; i < x; i++)
{
System.out.println(i);

for (j = 0; j < y; j++)

{
System.out.println();

for (k = 0; k < z; k++)

{
array3D[i][j][k] = (i * y * z) + (j * z) + k;
System.out.print("\t" + array3D[i][j][k]);
}
}

System.out.println('\n');
}
}

C# 3D Array
In C#, the concept is almost the same as in Java. However, C# makes the distinction between
jagged and multi-dimensional arrays. Elements of a multi-dimensional array are stored in a
contiguous block in memory while elements of a jagged array are not. Java arrays are actually
jagged arrays, while C# supports both and allows you to choose which one you want based on
the syntax of your code. Note that multi-dimensional arrays are better (in most cases) than jagged
arrays, and that is considered a minus point for Java.

Using jagged arrays in C# is not as simple as in Java. It’s almost like the way we would
implement it in C++.

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int[][] jaggedArray = new int[2][];
jaggedArray[0] = new int[4];
jaggedArray[1] = new int[3];

However, multi-dimensional arrays in C# are very simply to use. You can create a 3 dimensional
array as follows:

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int[,,] array3D = new int[x, y, z];

then access its elements at array3D[i][j][k].

Sample Code

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static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Array 3 Dimensions
int x = 4, y = 5, z = 6;

// Array Iterators
int i, j, k;

// Allocate 3D Array
int[,,] array3D = new int[x, y, z];

// Access array elements

for (i = 0; i < x; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(i);

for (j = 0; j < y; j++)

{
Console.WriteLine();

for (k = 0; k < z; k++)

{
array3D[i, j, k] = (i * y * z) + (j * z) + k;
Console.Write("\t{0}", array3D[i, j, k]);
}
}
 Console.WriteLine('\n');
}
}

C++ 3D Array

To create a multi-dimensional array in C++, we should change perspective a little bit and think
of creating arrays that point to other arrays, which point to other arrays, and so on. For example,
to create a 2x3x4 array in C++, we should imagine the implementation as follows:

For simplicity, we are doing the jagged implementation of the multi-dimensional array (address
of array3d[0][1][0] is not directly after array3d[0][0][3] in memory representation above).
In the next section, we will implement it in C the contiguous way. To allocate a jagged 2D array
in C++, one can write the following (compare to C# jagged above):

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int** jaggedArray = new int*[2];
jaggedArray[0] = new int[4];
jaggedArray[1] = new int[3];

The elements can be accessed as usual: jaggedArray[i][j]. The extra work we have to do in
C++ is to explicitly deallocate the array.

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delete[] jaggedArray[0];
delete[] jaggedArray[1];
delete[] jaggedArray;

See the code sample below to understand how we allocate and deallocate a 3 dimensional array
in C++.

Sample Code

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#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void main()
{
// Array 3 Dimensions
int x = 4, y = 5, z = 6;

// Array Iterators
int i, j, k;

// Allocate 3D Array
int ***array3D = new int**[x];

for(i = 0; i < x; i++)

{
array3D[i] = new int*[y];

for(j = 0; j < y; j++)

{
array3D[i][j] = new int[z];
}
}

// Access array elements

for(i = 0; i < x; i++)
{
cout << i << endl;
 for(j = 0; j < y; j++)
{
cout << endl;

for(k = 0; k < z; k++)

{
array3D[i][j][k] = (i * y * z) + (j * z) + k;
cout << '\t' << array3D[i][j][k];
}
}

cout << endl << endl;

}

// Deallocate 3D array
for(i = 0; i < x; i++)
{
for(j = 0; j < y; j++)
{
delete[] array3D[i][j];
}

delete[] array3D[i];
}
delete[] array3D;
}

C 3D Array

Implementing multi-dimensional arrays in C is very similar to C++, except that we use

malloc()\free()  stdlib methods instead of the new\delete keywords. The memory representation
below is the same, but we are going to focus in this section on making the elements of the 3
dimensional array contiguous.
To do so, we start by allocating space for all array elements in one call to malloc.

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int *allElements = malloc(x * y * z * sizeof(int));

Next, we create the arrays of pointers, and point to the contiguous elements we’ve already
allocated.

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int ***array3D = malloc(x * sizeof(int **));
for(i = 0; i < x; i++)
{
array3D[i] = malloc(y * sizeof(int *));

for(j = 0; j < y; j++)

{
array3D[i][j] = allElements + (i * y * z) + (j * z);
}
}
Note that if we wanted the same jagged implementation as in the C++ example above, we could
ignore the allocation of allElements and change the line of code array3D[i][j] = allElements +
(i * y * z) + (j * z); to array3D[i][j] = malloc(z * sizeof(int)). Below is a sample code for
allocating, accessing and deallocating a 3 dimensional array in C.

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#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

void main()
{
// Array 3 Dimensions
int x = 4, y = 5, z = 6;

// Array Iterators
int i, j, k;

// Allocate 3D Array
int *allElements = malloc(x * y * z * sizeof(int));
int ***array3D = malloc(x * sizeof(int **));

for(i = 0; i < x; i++)

{
array3D[i] = malloc(y * sizeof(int *));

for(j = 0; j < y; j++)

{
array3D[i][j] = allElements + (i * y * z) + (j * z);
}
}

// Access array elements

for(i = 0; i < x; i++)
{
printf("%d\n", i);

for(j = 0; j < y; j++)

{
printf("\n");

for(k = 0; k < z; k++)

{
array3D[i][j][k] = (i * y * z) + (j * z) + k;
printf("\t%d", array3D[i][j][k]);
}
}

printf("\n\n");
}

// Deallocate 3D array
free(allElements);
for(i = 0; i < x; i++)
 {
free(array3D[i]);
}
free (array3D);
}

Source Code

Full source code for the above 4 samples is available here.