Introduction to Arrays

• An array is one of the derived data types.

• Arrays are useful to process large amounts of data

• For example, suppose we have a temperature reading for each day of the year
and need to manipulate their values several times within a program

• With simple variables,

•We would need to declare 365 variables.

•We would not be able to loop over these variables
• The above problem can be solved by using an array: Temp [365]

• The elements in an array share the same name and are distinguished from one
another by their numbers or subscripts: 0,1,2….. Size-1

• An array must be declared before it can be used.

• Array declaration and definition provides information to the compiler - the
name of the array, type of array and the size.
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 Characteristics of an Array

• An array represents a group of related data.

• An array has two distinct characteristics:

An array is ordered: data is grouped sequentially: element 0, element 1,… n-1

An array is homogenous: every value within the array must share the same
data type. In other words, an int array can only hold integers, but not other
data types.

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 How to Create an Array

• Before we create an array, we need to decide on two properties:

Element type: what kind of data will the array hold? int, double, char?
Remember, we can only choose one type.

Array size: how many elements will the array contain?

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 Types of Arrays

• Arrays can be classified based on how the data items will be arranged.

• Arrays are broadly classified into three categories.

1. One dimensional arrays

2. Two dimensional arrays

3. Multi dimensional arrays

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 One Dimensional Arrays
• One dimensional array is a linear list consisting of related and similar data
items.

• In memory, all the data items are stored in contiguous memory locations.

Declaring a one dimensional array

• To declare ordinary variables, we use the following notation:
int number;

• To declare an array, the following syntax can be used:

Syntax: type arrayname[size];

For example:
int number[5];
• Creates an array of 5 integer elements.

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 Operations on one Dimensional Array (1 of 5)

1. Initializing
• There are four options to initialize one dimensional arrays.

Option A: Basic Initialization

• If the values of all the data elements are known, the values must be
specified within the braces.

int temp [5] = {75, 79, 82, 70, 68};

Memory Layout
temp[0] temp[1] temp[2] temp[3] temp [4]

75 79 82 70 68
1000 1002 1004 1006 1008
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Memory Representation of an Integer Array

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 Operations on one Dimensional Array (2 of 5)
Option B: Initialization without size
int temp [] = {75, 79, 82, 70, 68};
• The compiler allocates memory for an array of 5 elements. The array temp is
initialized as shown below:
temp[0] temp[1] temp[2] temp[3] temp[4]

75 79 82 70 68
1000 1002 1004 1006 1008 Address

OptionC: Partial Array Initialization

int temp [5] = {75, 79, 82}; // All values are not specified

temp[0]temp[1] temp[2]temp[3]temp[4]

75 79 82 0 0
1000 1002 1004 1006 1008 Address

• Values for first three elements have been specified

• The elements for which values are not specified, are initialized to zero’s.
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 Operations on one Dimensional Array (3 of 5)
Option D: Initialization to all zero’s
• If values of data elements are not known well in advance, then all elements
can be initialized to zero’s.

For example:

int temp [5] = {0};

temp[0] temp[1] temp[2] temp[3] temp [4]

0 0 0 0 0
1000 1002 1004 1006 1008 Address

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Operations on one Dimensional Array (4 of 5)
2. Inputting values
• Another way to fill the array is to read the values from the keyboard or a file.
• This could be done by using a loop.
Ex:
for(i=0; i<9; i++)
scanf(“%d”,&scores[i]);
3. Accessing elements of an array
• Index is used to access individual elements of an array.
Ex: scores[0];
4. Printing/Output values
• Another common application is printing the contents of an array.
• This can be easily done by using a loop.
Ex.
for(i=0; i<9; i++)
printf(“%d”,scores[i]);

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Operations on one Dimensional Array (5 of 5)
5. Assigning values to an array
• Suppose we have an array temperature, the readings of the temperature for
the year is represented in the below example .
• The subscripts would be 0, 1, …, 364.
Temperature array

75 79 82 70 68 65 58 63 67 61
temperature[4]

• We can loop through the elements of an array by varying the subscript. To set all the
elements of any array to 0:
for(i=0;i<365;i++)
temperature[i] = 0;
•
We cant use assignment statement directly with arrays.
•
if a[], b[] are two arrays then the assignment a=b is invalid

Example37 shows 1D array declaration & accessing 11

 Inter-function Communication
• To process arrays in a large program, arrays are required to be passed to
functions.

• Arrays can be passed to functions in two ways:

• Passing Individual Elements

• Individual elements can be passed to a function either by passing the

data values or by passing the addresses

• Passing the whole Array

• By using this, an Array name can be passed to the called function

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Inter-function Communication
Passing Array Elements

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 Inter-function Definition

Passing the Address of an Array Element

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Inter-function Definition
Passing the Whole Array

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 Two Dimensional Array

• An array of arrays is called multi-dimensional array.

• A multidimensional array can have two dimensions, three dimensions, four
dimensions, etc.
• A Multi-dimensional array which has only two dimensions is called as a two
dimensional array.
• Two-dimensional array can be regarded as a table with rows and columns:
Example:

'J' 'o' 'h' 'n' is a 3  4 array: 'J' 'o' 'h' 'n'

3 rows, 4 columns
'M' 'a' 'r' 'y' 'M' 'a' 'r' 'y'

'I' 'v' 'a' 'n' 'I' 'v' 'a' 'n'

• This is a two dimensional array having 3 rows and 4 columns

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 Two Dimensional Array
DECLARATION
Syntax:

• Type arrayName [rows][cols];

Example

• char names[3][4];

In the above declaration

• Char (elementType)  specifies type of element in each slot

• Names (arrayName)  specifies name of the array

• [3] (rows)  specifies number of rows

• [4] (cols)  specifies number of columns

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 Two Dimensional Array
Initialization

• A two dimensional array can be initialized at the time of declaration:

char names [3][4] = {
{‘J’, 'o', 'h', 'n'},
{‘M’, 'a', 'r', 'y'},
{‘I’, 'v', 'a', 'n'}
};
• An integer array can be initialized to all zeros by using the following
statement:
int nums[3][4] = {0};
• The declaration of a two dimensional array should have the column size
so that ,the elements can be in the form of rows and columns.

• To access an element of a 2D array, requires both the row and the column.

2Dexmpl 38 , 2Dexmp 39.c demonstrate 2d array declaration and initialization through turbo c.
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 Applications of Arrays
1. Matrix Operations
Addition, multiplication, trace, transpose…etc

2. Sorting: One of the most common applications in computer science is

sorting—the process through which data is arranged according to their
values.
•
Sorting techniques

• Selection Sort

• Bubble Sort

• Insertion Sort

• Merge Sort

• etc
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 Multi Dimensional Array

• C allows arrays of multiple dimensions.

• The general form of a multidimensional array is

type arrayName[s1][s2][s3]….[sm];

• For example
int a[10][3][2];
• It is represented as “an array of ten arrays of three rows of two columns”

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 Multi Dimensional Array
3-D Array example.

Example 40.c will demonstrate 3D array….

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Representation of a Multi Dimensional
Array
A Three-dimensional Array (3 x 5 x 4)

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