Apr 14, 20232D Arrays in C Tutorial 5Iterating through a 2D Array
William Huynh βΈ± 2 min read

Iterating through a 2D Array πŸ”

Preface 🐢

Whats the point of storing stuff in an array if we can access them all? Here we will learn how to iterate through a 2D array.

Getting Started πŸŽ‰

To iterate through a 2D array you need:

  • A variable representing the row index
  • A variable representing the column index
  • A nested for-loop!

Remember that a nested for loop is a loop within a loop!

So again, lets say we have the following array.

int my_array[2][4] = {
  {1, 2, 3, 4}, // First row
  {5, 6, 7, 8} // Second row
};

How would we iterate through the elements and print them out?

Well lets do it!

int row, col;
for (row = 0; row < 2; row++) {
    for (col = 0; col < 4; col++) {
        printf("%d ", myArray[row][col]);
    }
    printf("\n");
}
  • The first loop runs through each row of the array, starting with row 0
  • Then for that specific row, the second for loop, runs through every column
  • Then for each column, we just print out the element!

The result will be:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

And thats all!

Congratulations, you are now a 2D Array King!