How many types of arrays in c?

Answer 1

An array is simply a contiguous block of memory containing two or more elements. There are two types of array: a static array which is allocated on the stack at compile time; and a dynamic array which is allocated on the heap at runtime. Both can be one-dimensional or multi-dimensional. A one-dimensional array can be likened to a row (or column) of chessboard squares, with as many squares as required to store all the elements. A multi-dimensional array is any array with two or more dimensions. A two-dimensional array can be likened to the whole chessboard, where any square can be identified by its row and column index. However the dimensions needn't be equal. A two-dimensional array can also be imagined as a one-dimensional array where every element is simply another one-dimensional array. Three-dimensional arrays can be likened to a cube, or as a one-dimensional array of two-dimensional arrays. A four-dimensional array can be linked to a one-dimensional array of three-dimensional arrays, and so on. Although every one-dimensional array must be allocated in contiguous memory, multi-dimensional arrays can be dynamically allocated so that each dimension is itself a separately allocated one-dimensional array of pointers to the next dimension, making it possible to allocate extremely large arrays over a series of smaller allocations rather than as a single contiguous block.