Multi Dimensional array in C#

In this chapter you will learn:

• What is multi dimensional array?
• How to declare and initialize multi dimensional array in C#?
• How to use multi dimensional array in C# programming?

The multi-dimensional array in C# is such type of array that contains more than one row to store data on it. The multi-dimensional array is also known as a rectangular array in c sharp because it has the same length of each row. It can be a two-dimensional array or three-dimensional array or more. It contains more than one comma (,) within single rectangular brackets (“[ , , ,]”). To storing and accessing the elements from a multidimensional array, you need to use a nested loop in the program. The following example will help you to figure out the concept of a multidimensional array.

Programming Example of multidimensional array in C#:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace multi_dimensional_array
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int i, j;
            //Declaring multi dimensional array
            string[,] Books = new string[3, 3];
            for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
            {
                for (j = 0; j < 3; j++)
                {
                    Console.Write("\nEnter Book Name for {0}. Row and {1}. column:\t", i + 1, j + 1);
                    Books[i, j] = Console.ReadLine();
                }
            }

            Console.WriteLine("\n\n=========================");
            Console.WriteLine("All the element of Books array is:\n\n");

            //Formatting Output
            Console.Write("\t1\t2\t3\n\n");
            //outer loop for accessing rows
            for (i = 0; i < 3; i++)
            {
                Console.Write("{0}.\t", i + 1);

                //inner or nested loop for accessing column of each row
                for (j = 0; j < 3; j++)
                {
                    Console.Write("{0}\t", Books[i, j]);
                }
                Console.Write("\n");
            }
            Console.WriteLine("\n\n=========================");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Output

Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      C#


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      JAVA


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      C++


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      C


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      VB.NET


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      C#.NET


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      XML


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      HTML


Enter Book Name for 1. Row and 1. column:      SQL



===============================================

All the element of Books array is:



1       2              3


1.    C#     JAVA       C++

2.    C       VB.NET    C#.NET

3.    XML   HTML      SQL


__

In the preceding example, we create a two-dimensional array named Books which size is [3,3]. It means, this array has three rows and each row contains three columns. Each row can be accessed using an outer loop and each column of rows can be accessed using a nested loop inside the outer loop as follow.

for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) //outer loop for accessing rows
 {
   Console.Write("{0}.\t", i + 1);
 
   //inner or nested loop for accessing column of each row
   for (j = 0; j < 3; j++)
    {
      Console.Write("{0}\t", Books[i,j]);
    }
   Console.Write("\n");
 }

Summary

In this chapter you learned about multi dimensional array in C#. You also learned how to use it in c sharp programming. In next chapter you will learn about param array in C#.

More Examples