Arrays

CSE 4373: Computer Programming and Applications

Ajwad Abrar
Junior Lecturer, CSE
A scenario
● Imagine you have a massive

collection of books

● You’ve kept them in your shelf

● Each book has a number to

identify it and separate it from

the others

2
A scenario
We can represent your bookshelf in another manner

A dance
A game of A clash of A storm of A feast for
with
thrones kings swords crows
dragons

1 2 3 4 5

● Each item in the bookshelf is a book but each book it different

● We can assign numbers to each item to identify them

3
A scenario
A dance
A game of A clash of A storm of A feast for
with
thrones kings swords crows
dragons

1 2 3 4 5

Say you want to give a rating to each book based on how much you like it

4.7 4.4 4.2 4.3 4.8

1 2 3 4 5

4
How do we translate this into
programming?

5
A scenario

A naive approach would be declaring 5 different variables and

assigning the rating values to each variable
float book_1 = 4.7, book_2 = 4.4, book_3 = 4.2 ... ;

What if there were 100 books? What if there were 1000 books?

There must be a better way to do this

6
Arrays

An array is a sequence of objects of the same type that occupy a

contiguous area of memory

Sequence of objects → Collection of items in a shelf

Same type → All items are books
Contiguous area of memory → Books stored one after the other

7
Arrays

● Arrays are data structures containing many values of the same

type
● Each value / element in an array can be accessed individually
using an unique number based on their position
● These unique numbers are called indexes
A dance
A game of A clash of A storm of A feast for
with
thrones kings swords crows
dragons

0 1 2 3 4

8
Arrays

● Arrays can be considered as a list containing many items

● Each item is called an element of the array
● All elements are of the same data type (int, float)
● Each element can be accessed by using their index
● Indexing starts from 0

book_ratings
0 1 2 3 4

9
Arrays
Declaration of arrays

type identifier[count];

int array with 5 elements can be declared as

int prices[5]; prices

0 1 2 3 4

float array with 5 elements can be declared as

float book_ratings[5];

10
Arrays
Different ways to declare arrays
int n = 3;
int array_1[n]; // The size of the array can be a variable

int n;
scanf(“%d”, &n);
int array_1[n]; // User can input the size the size of the array

11
Pop Quiz

12
Arrays

What is the size of the array?

int x = 2, y = 4;

int array_1[++y];
int array_2[x * y + 3];
int array_2[x * x / y];
int array_3[0];

13
Arrays

What is the size of the array?

int x = 2, y = 4;

int array_1[++y]; // Size of the array is 5

int array_2[x * y + 3]; // Size of the array is 11
int array_2[x * x / y]; // Size of the array is 1
int array_3[0]; // This is not allowed

14
Arrays

How to access an element in an array?

identifier[index]
a a[0] a[1] a[2] a[3] a[4]

0 1 2 3 4

Think of an array having a collection of variables each holding

different data of the same type

15
Arrays
Accessing elements in an array
array_1

0 1 2 3 4

array_1[0] = 10;
array_1 10

0 1 2 3 4

printf(“%d”, a[1]); scanf(“%d”, &a[1]);

16
Arrays

Accessing elements in an array

int book_ratings[3];
book_ratings[0] = 4.3; // will be truncated to integer
book_ratings[1] = 4;
book_ratings[2] = 3.7; // will be truncated to integer

4 4 3

0 1 2 3 4
17
Arrays
Using loops to iterate through an array

int marks[5], i;
for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)
marks[i] = 0; // Setting each element to 0

for(i = 0; i < 5; i++)

scanf(“%d”, &marks[i]);
18
Pop Quiz

19
Arrays
array_1 4 0 3 4 2

0 1 2 3 4
int x = 3, y = 2, i = 0;
array_1[x % y] = x;
array_1[++x] = x;

while(i < 5)
array_1[++i] = 0
20
Arrays
array_1 4 0 3 4 2

0 1 2 3 4

int x = 3, y = 2, i = 0;
array_1[x % y] = x; // Sets the second element to 3
array_1[++x] = x; // Sets the fourth element to 3

while(i < 5)
array_1[++i] = 0; // Sets all the elements to 0
21
Arrays

Reverse a series of numbers

● Prompt the user to enter 10 numbers
● Store them in an array
● Print them in reverse order

22
Array initialization

23
Array initialization
● If no value is given, it initially holds garbage values
● Most common → List of constants enclosed in braces, separated by
comma
int a[6] = {1, 4, 4, 4, 0, 1};
● Initialization can be shorter than array
int a[6] = {1, 4, 4}; // {1, 4, 4, 0, 0, 0}
● Initialize array with the same number
int a[6] = {0}; // {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}
● Length of an array can be omitted
int a[] = {1, 4, 3, 2, 1}; // Size of array is 5 24
Multidimensional arrays

25
Multidimensional arrays
In C programming, you can create an array of arrays. These arrays
are known as multidimensional arrays.

26
Multidimensional arrays

4-D plot

27
Multidimensional arrays
A simple 2-dimensional array
int a[2][5];
Imagine an array of size 5 containing arrays each of size 2

0 1 2 3 4

0 0 0 0 0

1 1 1 1 1
28
Multidimensional arrays
It has 2 rows and 5 columns, rows and columns are indexed from 0

0 1 2 3 4

m[i][j] → Access jth column of ith row

29
Multidimensional arrays

In memory, they are stored as flat one-dimensional array

Do not write m[i][j] as m[i, j]

30
Pop Quiz

31
Multidimensional arrays
Nested loops → Ideal for processing multidimensional arrays

Create an identity matrix

32
Multidimensional arrays
int N = 3;
int identity[N][N], row, col;
for(row = 0; row < N; row++)
for(col = 0; col < N; col++)
if(row == col)
identity[i][j] = 1;
else
identity[i][j] = 0;

33
Multidimensional arrays
● Nesting one-dimensional initializers
int m[2][3] = {{1, 1, 1},
{0, 1, 0}};
● If initializer is shorter than array, rest is filled with zeros
int m[2][3] = {{1, 2, 1},
{1}}; // {{1, 2, 1}, {1, 0, 0}}
● Can omit inner braces → Risky due to extra/missing elements

34
Variable length array

35
Variable length array
● Length of array is computed during program execution
int m, n;
scanf("%d %d", &m, &n);
int arr[m][n];
● Reduces wastage of memory
● Cannot have initializers
● Major cause of stack overflow (No need to understand)
● Not available in standard C++ or many other languages

36
Reading Tasks
● C Programming - A Modern Approach | Chapter 8

37
Thank You

38