2D array in C++ with variable dimentions

Question

So I am teaching myself C++ and I have a doubt about arrays. I know that if I declare a 2D array like:

char board[8][8];

I create a 2D array with a height and a width of 8. But, I was wondering if there is a way to set those dimensions to variables so the user can input the height and width they want, I tried this in C++ and visual studio wasn't happy.

int rowSize = 0;  
int colSize = 0;
cin >> rowSize >> colSize;
char board[rowSize][colSize];

can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Since this is tagged with c++ , perhaps std::vector is for you. It's much like an array, but more convenient and well suited for this purpose. You can simply initialize a 2D Array of nested vectors with this initializer call (thanks to Bob__ for this much more simple solution):

int n = 5;
int m = 10;
std::vector<std::vector<char>> board (n, std::vector<char>(m, 'a'));

This creates the board and initializes all fields to 'a' , per example. You can access and manipulate the data using the same syntax as with C style arrays:

char x = board[4][2];
board[3][3] = 'o';

Last but not least, there are lots of convenient features and functions that allow you to do things like copying it much more easily than with C-style arrays. Check out the documentation of std::string here .

Answer 2

If you want to allocate such matrices, use a vector and index it with i + j * rowSize .

The other construction is not c++ compliant, it's an gcc extension from C99 (Variable Length Arrays), and their equivalent (more or less) are a vector or a unique pointer to an array.

Answer 3

If you really want to do this you could do the follwing:

int* myPointer = nullptr;   // Pointer to int, initialize to nothing.
int sizeOfArray;           // Size needed for array
std::cin >> sizeOfArray;        // At runtime get the size of the array
myPointer = new int[sizeOfArray];  // Allocate array of specified size and save ptr in a.
for (int i = 0; i < sizeOfArray; i++) {
    myPointer[i] = 0;    // Initialize all elements to zero.
}
delete[] myPointer;  // When done, free memory pointed to by myPointer.
myPointer = nullptr;     // Clear a to prevent using invalid memory reference.

Although I would strongly recommend you use a vector instead.

Answer 4

No you cannot in conformant C++, because the standard does not define Variable Length Arrays (*).

If you do not need consecutive allocation (a true 2D array underlying storage), you can use a vector of vectors. This is generally the most simple and idiomatic way:

std::vector<std::vector<char>>(8, std::vector<char>(8, '\0'));

If you can accept a functionnal type access, you can build a custom container with an underlying 1D vector of size 64 (8*8), and an accessor method returning a reference.

If you want to mimic 2D container with an underlying true 2D array, then you are in trouble. I have tried to build a generic multi-dimensional container (code in Code Review ), and realized that you cannot correctly implement random access iterators on non standard containers...

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(*) of course, gcc gladly accept VLA in C++ as a documented extension to the language...