I have a function which I want to take, as a parameter, a 2D array of variable size.
So far I have this:
void myFunction(double** myArray){
myArray[x][y] = 5;
etc...
}
And I have declared an array elsewhere in my code:
double anArray[10][10];
However, calling myFunction(anArray) gives me an error.
I do not want to copy the array when I pass it in. Any changes made in myFunction should alter the state of anArray. If I understand correctly, I only want to pass in as an argument a pointer to a 2D array. The function needs to accept arrays of different sizes also. So for example, [10][10] and [5][5]. How can I do this?
16 Answers
There are three ways to pass a 2D array to a function:
The parameter is a 2D array
int array[10][10]; void passFunc(int a[][10]) { // ... } passFunc(array);The parameter is an array containing pointers
int *array[10]; for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++) array[i] = new int[10]; void passFunc(int *a[10]) //Array containing pointers { // ... } passFunc(array);The parameter is a pointer to a pointer
int **array; array = new int *[10]; for(int i = 0; i <10; i++) array[i] = new int[10]; void passFunc(int **a) { // ... } passFunc(array);
Fixed Size
1. Pass by reference
template <size_t rows, size_t cols>
void process_2d_array_template(int (&array)[rows][cols])
{
std::cout << __func__ << std::endl;
for (size_t i = 0; i < rows; ++i)
{
std::cout << i << ": ";
for (size_t j = 0; j < cols; ++j)
std::cout << array[i][j] << '\t';
std::cout << std::endl;
}
}
In C++ passing the array by reference without losing the dimension information is probably the safest, since one needn't worry about the caller passing an incorrect dimension (compiler flags when mismatching). However, this isn't possible with dynamic (freestore) arrays; it works for automatic (usually stack-living) arrays only i.e. the dimensionality should be known at compile time.
2. Pass by pointer
void process_2d_array_pointer(int (*array)[5][10])
{
std::cout << __func__ << std::endl;
for (size_t i = 0; i < 5; ++i)
{
std::cout << i << ": ";
for (size_t j = 0; j < 10; ++j)
std::cout << (*array)[i][j] << '\t';
std::cout << std::endl;
}
}
The C equivalent of the previous method is passing the array by pointer. This should not be confused with passing by the array's decayed pointer type (3), which is the common, popular method, albeit less safe than this one but more flexible. Like (1), use this method when all the dimensions of the array is fixed and known at compile-time. Note that when calling the function the array's address should be passed process_2d_array_pointer(&a) and not the address of the first element by decay process_2d_array_pointer(a).
