Compile time and runtime initialization of 2D array in C#

Compile time and run time initialization of 2D array in C#

In this article we will see how to initialize 2 dimension array in compile time and run time. If you are new in C# programming I hope you will enjoy this article.  

Let’s get some idea of two dimension array.

Tow dimension array are nothing but combination of single dimension array. It represents data in table format. Data store in consecutive memory location . We will see how to define 2 dimension array in c#.

Define 2 dimension array.

It’s pretty simple to define 2 dimension array. Just follow below line

int [,] MyArray = new int[2,2];

Here we can see data type of array is integer and name of array is MyArray which contents base address of array which has created in memory. Within square bracket we can specify size of array like [row,column] . Here we can see size array is 2 X 2 means maximum we can store 4 integer values within this array. When we create array by default it’s initialize by 0 (If it is integer array). Now we have to put our own value to work with. There are two different ways to set value within array, we will see both of them in below example.

Set value in compile time

This type of initialization is called compile time initialization because we are setting value when we are writing code or compiling time. Let’s try to understand below example.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Globalization;
namespace Test1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
           int [,] MyArray = new int[2,2];
           MyArray[0, 0] = 100;
           MyArray[0, 1] = 100;
           MyArray[1, 0] = 100;
           MyArray[1, 1] = 100;
 
           Console.WriteLine("Static initialisation");
 
           for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
           {
               for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
               {
                   Console.Write(MyArray[i, j] + " ");
               }
               Console.WriteLine("\n");
           }
           Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}
 

Now, one big problem of this type of initialization is, User cannot give value in run time. Means this array is not capable to work with user’s value. In next example we will see how to solve it.

Set value in Run time

This is standard way of initialization. User can able to set their value with array and array can able to process it.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Globalization;
 
namespace Test1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
           int [,] MyArray = new int[2,2];
           Console.WriteLine("Static initialisation");
 
           for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
           {
               for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
               {
                   Console.WriteLine("Please enter number");
                   MyArray[i, j]  = 			Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());
               }
               Console.WriteLine("\n");
           }
 
 
 
           for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
           {
               for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
               {
                   Console.Write(MyArray[i, j] + " ");
               }
               Console.WriteLine("\n");
           }
           Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Conclusion :