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Passing 2-D Array to a Function in C

Last updated on July 27, 2020

Just like a 1-D array, when a 2-D array is passed to a function, the changes made by function effect the original array. But before we study this, I want to make a few points clear.

We have learned that in chapter Two Dimensional Array in C that when a 2-D is passed to a function it is optional to specify the size of the left most dimensions. So if we have an array of 2 rows and 3 dimensions then it can be passed to a function in the following two ways:

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int two_d[2][3] = {
                      {99,44,11},
                      {4,66,9}
                  };

1st way:

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void function(int a[][3])
{
    // statements;
}

2nd way:

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void function(int a[2][3])
{
    // statements;
}

Recall that 2-D arrays are stored in row-major order i.e first row 0 is stored, then next to it row 1 is stored and so on. Therefore in C, a 2-D array is actually a 1-D array in which each element is itself a 1-D array. Since the name of the array points to the 0th element of the array. In the case of a 2-D array, 0th element is an array. Therefore, from this discussion, we can conclude that two_d is a pointer to an array of 3 integers.

Hence we can also declare a function where the formal argument is of type pointer to an array.

3rd way:

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void function(int (*a)[3])
{
    // statements; 
}

Essentially in all the three cases discussed the type of the variable a is a pointer to an array of 3 integers, they differ only in the way they are represented.

Okay let's get back to our original discussion - Why the changes made by the function effect the original array? The following program answers this question.

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#include<stdio.h>
void change_twod(int (*a)[3]);

int main()
{
    int i,j, two_d[2][3] = {
                               {99,44,11},
                               {4,66,9}
                           };

    printf("Original array: \n\n");

    for(i = 0; i < 2; i++)
    {
        for(j = 0; j < 3; j++)
        {
            printf("%3d ", two_d[i][j]);
        }

        printf("\n");
    }

    change_twod(two_d);

    printf("\n\nModified array : \n\n");

    for(i = 0; i < 2; i++)
    {
        for(j = 0; j < 3; j++)
        {
            printf("%3d ", two_d[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }

    // signal to operating system everything works fine
    return 0;
}

void change_twod(int (*arr)[3])
{
    int i, j;

    printf("\n\nIncrementing every element by 5\n");
    // increment original elements by 6

    for(i = 0; i < 2; i++)
    {
        for(j = 0; j < 3; j++)
        {
            arr[i][j] = arr[i][j] + 5;
        }
    }

}

Expected Output:

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Original array:

99 44 11
4 66 9
Incrementing every element by 5
Modified array :

104 49 16
9 71 14

How it works:

As discussed earlier in this section that two_d and arr are of type pointer to an array of 3 integers. In line 25, change_twod() is called with an actual argument of two_d which is then assigned to arr. Now both two_d and arr points to the same 2-D array, as a result, changes made inside the function will be visible in the function main().