Jagged array

Memory layout of a jagged array.

In computer science, a jagged array, also known as a ragged array, is an array of arrays of which the member arrays can be of different sizes,[1] producing rows of jagged edges when visualized as output. In contrast, C-styled arrays are always rectangular.[2]

Arrays of arrays in languages such as Java, Python (multidimensional lists), Ruby, Visual Basic.NET, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, Objective-C, Swift, and Atlas Autocode are implemented as Iliffe vectors.

Examples

In C#, jagged arrays can be created with the following code:[3]

int[][]c;
c=new int[2][]; // creates 2 rows
c[0]=new int[5]; // 5 columns for row 0
c[1]=new int[3]; // create 3 columns for row 1

In C++/CLI, jagged array can be created with the code:[4]

using namespace System;
int main()
{
array<array<double> ^> ^ Arrayname = gcnew array <array<double> ^> (4);// array contains 4 
//elements
return 0;
}


In Python, jagged arrays are not native but one can use list comprehensions to create a multi-dimensional list which supports any dimensional matrix: [5]

multi_list_3d = [[[] for i in range(3)] for i in range(3)] # [[[], [], []], [[], [], []], [[], [], []]]
multi_list_5d = [[[] for i in range(5)] for i in range(5)] # [[[], [], [], [], []], [[], [], [], [], []], [[], [], [], [], []], [[], [], [], [], []], [[], [], [], [], []]]


See also

References

  1. ↑ Jesse Liberty; Brian MacDonald (18 November 2008). Learning C# 3.0. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". pp. 210–. ISBN 978-0-596-55420-0.
  2. ↑ Don Box (2002). Essential .Net: The Common Language Runtime. Addison-Wesley Professional. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-201-73411-9.
  3. ↑ Paul J. Deitel; Harvey M. Deitel (26 September 2008). C# 2008 for Programmers. Pearson Education. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-13-701188-9.
  4. ↑ "Jagged Arrays". FunctionX. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Lists in Python Demystified". Alvin.io. Retrieved 31 January 2016.


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