Different Types of Arrays

An array basically is an homogeneous collection of values with similar data type referred by an common name.It is simply an group of data with similar types. An data in an Array is called an Element of the array, an element can be accessed in an array by using it's index. Index is simply an position in which the array element is stored.

Types of Arrays:

One-Dimensional Arrays:

An One-dimensional Array is an list of data with similar DataTypes referred by an common name.

It can be Defined as:

         Array_name[size of array] = {x,y....,z}

*note: The Array index always starts at 0

It is the simplest form of array in which data are stored in an linear fashion.
say,

int num[4] ={2,6,5,4}

 then the elements in array are stored as:

                                    data         2      6      5     4    
                                    index       0      1      2     3  

Total memory occupied by an One-Diamensional array : (size of dataType) * size of array

Two-Dimensional Arrays:

Instead of being an list of data's, an Two-dimensional Array is an array of arrays with similar datatype referred by an common name.An Two-dimensional Array consists of List of lists rather than list of data's.

It can be defined as:

                          Array_name[row][column]={x,y,.....z}

             In Two dimensional Array, data are stored in matrix form.
say (let's take the same example as in One-Dimensional Array and implement it in 2-D Array),
     
           int num[2][2]={2,6,5,4}

then the elements in array are stored as:

                                         data             2      6      5      4
                                         index          0,0   0,1   1,0   1,1
                         
total memory occupied by an Two-Dimensional Array: (size of DataType) * size of 1st index * size of 2nd index

Multi-Dimensional Arrays:

Multi-Dimensional Arrays are arrays containing two or more than two levels. As the Two-Dimensional Array contained Two levels i.e. Rows and Columns, it is also an Multi-Dimensional Array.An multi-dimensional array may contain n levels,

                   Array_name[a][b][c]....[n]={x,y.....z}