Multidimensional Array Storage in C

This C Tutorial Explains how Elements in a Multidimensional Array in C are Stored in Memory with an Example.

A multidimensional array can be thought of as a one-dimensional array with composite elements. For example:

  int flags[3][2][5][4]= {
  {
   {{1,2,3,4},{5,6,7,8},{9,10,11,12},{13,14,15,16},{17,18,19,20}},
   {{21,22,23,24},{25,26,27,28},{29,30,31,32},{33,34,35,36},{37,38,39,40}}
  },
  {
   {{41,42,43,44},{45,46,47,48},{49,50,51,52},{53,54,55,56},{57,58,59,60}},
   {{61,62,63,64},{65,66,67,68},{69,70,71,72},{73,74,75,76},{77,78,79,80}}
  },
  {
   {{81,82,83,84},{85,86,87,88},{89,90,91,92},{93,94,95,96},{97,98,99,100}},
   {{101,102,103,104},{105,106,107,108},{109,110,111,112},{113,114,115,116},
                                                         {117,118,119,120}}
  }
                          };

Let’s presume that array ‘flags’ have three composite elements and looks like as:

    flags[3][2][5][4] = {*, *, *};

Each composite element ‘*’ is an array of 2 arrays of 5 arrays of 4 integers. Since, elements in one-dimensional array are stored in contiguous memory locations therefore with the above presumption, composite elements in ‘flags’ stored in continuous memory locations. This organisation of array elements in memory is called row major order.

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