How does this code initialize the 2D array?

Question

I found this piece of code on internet. How does this initialize the array?

char words[][MAXLENGTH] =
{
    "india",
    "pakistan",
    "nepal",
    "malaysia",
    "philippines",
    "australia",
    "iran",
    "ethiopia",
    "oman",
    "indonesia"
};

What is it exactly you don't understand? There's quite a bit of ground to cover here. You may be better off consulting a decent beginner book instead of asking on SO. — StoryTeller - Unslander Monica, Apr 22 '18 at 11:01
if you are curious about why we need to specify column size - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12813494/why-do-we-need-to-specify-the-column-size-when-passing-a-2d-array-as-a-parameter — Abhishek Keshri, Apr 22 '18 at 11:04
if you want to know how to create array of strings - https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/array-strings-c-3-different-ways-create/ — Abhishek Keshri, Apr 22 '18 at 11:05
i wanted to ask that what will exist at words[0][3], and also if this is a good way of initializing a 2-D character array? — Faizan, Apr 22 '18 at 11:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 22 '18 at 11:25

1

The given array is an array of strings. Each index of words is a string.

e.g:

words[0] = "india"
words[1] = "pakistan"
and so on.

You can use words[0][j] to refer to the characters present in india, words[1][j] for referring to characters of pakistan.

Maybe the following code will help you visualize the array:

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    int MAXLENGTH = 10;
    char words[][MAXLENGTH] =
    {
        "india",
        "pakistan",
        "nepal",
        "malaysia",
        "philippines",
        "australia",
        "iran",
        "ethiopia",
        "oman",
        "indonesia"
    };

    for(int i=0;i<MAXLENGTH;i++)
    {
        std::string s = words[i];
        for(int j=0;j<s.size();j++)
        {
            std::cout << words[i][j] << " ";
        }
        std::cout << "\n";
    }
    return 0;
}

answered Apr 22 '18 at 11:25

Abhishek Keshri

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oh yeah! thanks! this helped me figure it out – Faizan Apr 22 '18 at 16:23
accept it if it helped you – Abhishek Keshri Apr 22 '18 at 16:32
The tick mark, I guess, lets me accept an answer.. Right?? – Faizan Apr 24 '18 at 04:27
Yeah... Thanks :) – Abhishek Keshri Apr 24 '18 at 04:28

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 22 '18 at 11:17

char words[][MAXLENGTH] Initialises a 2D array of characters. Basically defines an array of elements and each element in the array is an array of characters e.g. "india"

MAXLENGTH Defines the maximum length of each word in the words array.

char singleWord[] = {"india"} -> an array of characters, meaning by calling singleWord[0] the character i would be returned.

By calling words[2] the character array "nepal" would be returned.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of answer you were looking for, but if you have any questions let me know.

How does this code initialize the 2D array?

2 Answers2