Week 6

Arrays
C How to Program, 8/e, GE

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 1

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 2
6.2 Arrays

• An array is a group of contiguous memory locations that all have the

same type.
• To refer to a particular location or element in the array, we specify the
array’s name and the position number of the particular element in the
array.
• Figure 6.1 shows an integer array called c, containing 12 elements.
• Any one of these elements may be referred to by giving the array’s
name followed by the position number of the particular element in
square brackets ([]).

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 3

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 4
6.2 Arrays (Cont.)

• The first element in every array is the zeroth element.

• An array name, like other identifiers, can contain only letters, digits and
underscores and cannot begin with a digit.
• The position number within square brackets is called an index or subscript.
• An index must be an integer or an integer expression.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 5

6.2 Arrays (Cont.)

• For example, if a = 5 and b = 6, then the statement

• c[a + b] += 2;
• adds 2 to array element c[11].
• An indexed array name is an lvalue—it can be used on the left side of
an assignment.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 6

6.2 Arrays (Cont.)

• Let’s examine array c (Fig. 6.1) more closely.

• The array’s name is c.
• Its 12 elements are referred to as c[0], c[1], c[2], …, c[10] and c[11].
• The value stored in c[0] is –45, the value of c[1] is 6, c[2] is 0, c[7] is
62 and c[11] is 78.
• To print the sum of the values contained in the first three elements of array c,
we’d write
• printf("%d", c[0] + c[1] + c[2]);
• To divide the value of element 7 of array c by 2 and assign the result to the
variable x, write

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 7

6.2 Arrays (Cont.)

• The brackets used to enclose the index of an array are actually

considered to be an operator in C.
• They have the same level of precedence as the function call operator
(i.e., the parentheses that are placed after a function name to call
that function).
• Figure 6.2 shows the precedence and associativity of the operators
introduced to this point in the text.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 8

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 9
6.3 Defining Arrays

• Arrays occupy space in memory.

• You specify the type of each element and the number of elements
each array requires so that the computer may reserve the appropriate
amount of memory.
• The following definition reserves 12 elements for integer array c,
which has indices in the range 0-11.
• int c[12];

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 10

6.3 Defining Arrays (Cont.)

• The definition
• int b[100], x[27];
reserves 100 elements for integer array b and 27 elements for integer
array x.
• These arrays have indices in the ranges 0–99 and 0–26, respectively.
• Arrays may contain other data types.
• Character strings and their similarity to arrays are discussed in
Chapter 8. The relationship between pointers and arrays is discussed
in Chapter 7.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 11

6.4 Array Examples

6.4.1 Defining an Array and Using a Loop to Set the Array’s Element
Values
• Like any other variables, uninitialized array elements contain garbage
values.
• Figure 6.3 uses for statements to initialize the elements of a five
integer array n to zeros and print the array in tabular format.
• The first printf statement displays the column heads for the two
columns printed in the subsequent for statement.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 12

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 13
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 14
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• Notice that the variable i is declared to be of type size_t, which

according to the C standard represents an unsigned integral type.
• This type is recommended for any variable that represents an array’s
size or an array’s indices.
• Type size_t is defined in header <stddef.h>, which is often
included by other headers (such as <stdio.h>).
• [Note: If you attempt to compile Fig. 6.3 and receive errors, simply
include <stddef.h> in your program.]

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 15

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

Initializing an Array in a Definition with an Initializer List

• The elements of an array can also be initialized when the array is
defined by following the definition with an equals sign and braces,
{}, containing a comma-separated list of array initializers.
• Figure 6.4 initializes an integer array with five values and prints the
array in tabular format.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 16

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 17
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 18
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• If there are fewer initializers than elements in the array, the remaining
elements are initialized to zero.
• For example, the elements of the array n in Fig. 6.3 could have been
initialized to zero as follows:
// initializes entire array to zeros
int n[10] = {0};
• This explicitly initializes the first element to zero and initializes the
remaining nine elements to zero because there are fewer initializers
than there are elements in the array.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 19

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• It’s important to remember that arrays are not automatically

initialized to zero.
• You must at least initialize the first element to zero for the remaining
elements to be automatically zeroed.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 20

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 21
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• The array definition

• int n[5] = {32, 27, 64, 18, 95, 14};
causes a syntax error because there are six initializers and only five
array elements.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 22

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• If the array size is omitted from a definition with an initializer list, the
number of elements in the array will be the number of elements in
the initializer list.
• For example,
• int n[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
would create a five-element array initialized with the indicated values.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 23

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

Specifying an Array’s Size with a Symbolic Constant and Initializing

Array Elements with Calculations
• Figure 6.5 initializes the elements of a 5-element array s to the values
2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and prints the array in tabular format.
• The values are generated by multiplying the loop counter by 2 and
adding 2.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 24

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 25
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 26
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• The #define preprocessor directive is introduced in this program.

• #define SIZE 5
• defines a symbolic constant SIZE whose value is 5.
• A symbolic constant is an identifier that’s replaced with replacement
text by the C preprocessor before the program is compiled.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 27

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• When the program is preprocessed, all occurrences of the symbolic

constant SIZE are replaced with the replacement text 5.
• Using symbolic constants to specify array sizes makes programs more
modifiable.
• In Fig. 6.5, we could have the first for loop fill a 1000-element array
by simply changing the value of SIZE in the #define directive from
5 to 1000.
• If the symbolic constant SIZE had not been used, we’d have to
change the program in three separate places.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 28

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 29
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 30
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 31
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 32
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 33
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

Summing the Elements of an Array

• Figure 6.6 sums the values contained in the 12-element integer array
a.
• The for statement’s body does the totaling.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 34

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 35
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

Using Arrays to Summarize Survey Results

• Our next example uses arrays to summarize the results of data
collected in a survey.
• Consider the problem statement.
• Forty students were asked to rate the quality of the food in the student
cafeteria on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 means awful and 10 means excellent). Place
the 40 responses in an integer array and summarize the results of the poll.
• This is a typical array application (see Fig. 6.7).
• We wish to summarize the number of responses of each type (i.e., 1
through 10).
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 36
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 37
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 38
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• The array responses is a 40-element array of the students’

responses.
• We use an 11-element array frequency to count the number of
occurrences of each response.
• We ignore frequency[0] because it’s logical to have response 1
increment frequency[1] rather than frequency[0].
• This allows us to use each response directly as the index in the
frequency array.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 39

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• The for loop takes the responses one at a time from the array
responses and increments one of the 10 counters
(frequency[1] to frequency[10]) in the frequency array.
• The key statement in the loop is
• ++frequency[responses[answer]];
which increments the appropriate frequency counter depending
on the value of responses[answer].

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 40

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• When the counter variable answer is 0, responses[answer] is

1, so ++frequency[responses[answer]]; is interpreted as
• ++frequency[1];
which increments array element one.
• When answer is 1, responses[answer] is 2, so +
+frequency[responses[answer]]; is interpreted as
• ++frequency[2];
which increments array element two.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 41

6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• When answer is 2, responses[answer] is 6, so +

+frequency[responses[answer]]; is interpreted as
• ++frequency[6];
which increments array element six, and so on.
• Regardless of the number of responses processed in the survey, only
an 11-element array is required (ignoring element zero) to summarize
the results.
• If the data contained invalid values such as 13, the program would
attempt to add 1 to frequency[13].
• This would be outside the bounds of the array.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 42
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

• C has no array bounds checking to prevent the program from referring

to an element that does not exist.
• Thus, an executing program can “walk off” either end of an array
without warning—a security problem that we discuss in Section 6.11.
• You should ensure that all array references remain within the bounds
of the array.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 43

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 44
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 45
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

Graphing Array Element Values with Histograms

• Our next example (Fig. 6.8) reads numbers from an array and graphs
the information in the form of a bar chart or histogram—each
number is printed, then a bar consisting of that many asterisks is
printed beside the number.
• The nested for statement draws the bars.
• Note the use of puts("") to end each histogram bar.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 46

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 47
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 48
6.4 Array Examples (Cont.)

Rolling a Die 60,000,000 Times and Summarizing the Results in an

Array
• Roll a single six-sided die 60,000,000 times to test whether the
random number generator actually produces random numbers.
• An array version of this program is shown in Fig. 6.9.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 49

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 50
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 51
6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• We now discuss storing strings in character arrays.
• So far, the only string-processing capability we have is outputting a
string with printf.
• A string such as "hello" is really an array of individual characters in
C.
• A character array can be initialized using a string literal.
• For example,
• char string1[] = "first";
initializes the elements of array string1 to the individual characters
in the string literal "first".
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 52
6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• In this case, the size of array string1 is determined by the compiler based
on the length of the string.
• The string "first" contains five characters plus a special string-termination
character called the null character.
• Thus, array string1 actually contains six elements.
• The character constant representing the null character is '\0'.
• All strings in C end with this character.
• A character array representing a string should always be defined large enough
to hold the number of characters in the string and the terminating null
character.
• Character arrays also can be initialized with individual character constants in
an initializer list, but this can be tedious.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 53
6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• The preceding definition is equivalent to
• char string1[] =
{'f', 'i', 'r', 's', 't', '\0'};
• Because a string is really an array of characters, we can access
individual characters in a string directly using array index notation.
• For example, string1[0] is the character 'f' and string1[3]
is the character 's'.
• We also can input a string directly into a character array from the
keyboard using scanf and the conversion specifier %s.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 54

6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• For example,
• char string2[20];
creates a character array capable of storing a string of at most 19 characters
and a terminating null character.
• The statement
• scanf("%19s", string2);
reads a string from the keyboard into string2.
• The name of the array is passed to scanf without the preceding & used with
nonstring variables.
• The & is normally used to provide scanf with a variable’s location in memory
so that a value can be stored there.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 55
6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• Function scanf will read characters until a space, tab, newline or end-of-file
indicator is encountered.
• The string2 should be no longer than 19 characters to leave room for the
terminating null character.
• If the user types 20 or more characters, your program may crash or create a
security vulerability.
• For this reason, we used the conversion specifier %19s so that scanf reads a
maximum of 19 characters and does not write characters into memory beyond
the end of the array string2.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 56

6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• It’s your responsibility to ensure that the array into which the string is
read is capable of holding any string that the user types at the
keyboard.
• Function scanf does not check how large the array is.
• Thus, scanf can write beyond the end of the array.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 57

6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• A character array representing a string can be output with printf
and the %s conversion specifier.
• The array string2 is printed with the statement
• printf("%s\n", string2);
• Function printf, like scanf, does not check how large the
character array is.
• The characters of the string are printed until a terminating null
character is encountered.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 58

6.5 Using Character Arrays to Store and Manipulate
Strings
• Figure 6.10 demonstrates initializing a character array with a string
literal, reading a string into a character array, printing a character
array as a string and accessing individual characters of a string.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 59

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 60
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 61
6.11 Multidimensional Arrays

• Arrays in C can have multiple indices.

• A common use of multidimensional arrays is to represent tables of
values consisting of information arranged in rows and columns.
• To identify a particular table element, we must specify two indices:
The first (by convention) identifies the element’s row and the second
(by convention) identifies the element’s column.
• Tables or arrays that require two indices to identify a particular
element are called two-dimensional arrays.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 62

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• Multidimensional arrays can have more than two indices.

• Figure 6.20 illustrates a two-dimensional array, a.
• The array contains three rows and four columns, so it’s said to be a 3-
by-4 array.
• In general, an array with m rows and n columns is called an m-by-n
array

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 63

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 64
6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• Every element in array a is identified in Fig. 6.20 by an element name

of the form a[i][j]; a is the name of the array, and i and j are
the indices that uniquely identify each element in a.
• The names of the elements in row 0 all have a first index of 0; the
names of the elements in column 3 all have a second index of 3.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 65

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 66
6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• A multidimensional array can be initialized when it’s defined, much like a one-
dimensional array.
• For example, a two-dimensional array int b[2][2] could be defined and
initialized with
• int b[2][2] = {{1, 2}, {3, 4}};
• The values are grouped by row in braces.
• The values in the first set of braces initialize row 0 and the values in the
second set of braces initialize row 1.
• So, the values 1 and 2 initialize elements b[0][0] and b[0][1],
respectively, and the values 3 and 4 initialize elements b[1][0] and b[1]
[1], respectively.
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 67
6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• If there are not enough initializers for a given row, the remaining
elements of that row are initialized to 0.
• Thus,
• int b[2][2] = {{1}, {3, 4}};
would initialize b[0][0] to 1, b[0][1] to 0, b[1][0] to 3 and
b[1][1] to 4.
• Figure 6.21 demonstrates defining and initializing two-dimensional
arrays.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 68

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 69
© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 70
6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• The program defines three arrays of two rows and three columns (six
elements each).
• The definition of array1 provides six initializers in two sublists.
• The first sublist initializes row 0 of the array to the values 1, 2 and 3;
and the second sublist initializes row 1 of the array to the values 4, 5
and 6.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 71

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• If the braces around each sublist are removed from the array1 initializer list,
the compiler initializes the elements of the first row followed by the elements
of the second row.
• The definition of array2 provides five initializers.
• The initializers are assigned to the first row, then the second row.
• Any elements that do not have an explicit initializer are initialized to zero
automatically, so array2[1][2] is initialized to 0.
• The definition of array3 provides three initializers in two sublists.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 72

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• The sublist for the first row explicitly initializes the first two elements of the
first row to 1 and 2.
• The third element is initialized to zero.
• The sublist for the second row explicitly initializes the first element to 4.
• The last two elements are initialized to zero.
• The program calls printArray to output each array’s elements.
• The function definition specifies the array parameter as const int a[][3].
• When we receive a one-dimensional array as a parameter, the array brackets
are empty in the function’s parameter list.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 73

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• The first index of a multidimensional array is not required either, but all
subsequent indices are required.
• The compiler uses these indices to determine the locations in memory of
elements in multidimensional arrays.
• All array elements are stored consecutively in memory regardless of the
number of indices.
• In a two-dimensional array, the first row is stored in memory followed by the
second row.
• Providing the index values in a parameter declaration enables the compiler to
tell the function how to locate an element in the array.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 74

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• In a two-dimensional array, each row is basically a one-dimensional

array.
• To locate an element in a particular row, the compiler must know how
many elements are in each row so that it can skip the proper number
of memory locations when accessing the array.
• Thus, when accessing a[1][2] in our example, the compiler knows
to skip the three elements of the first row to get to the second row
(row 1).
• Then, the compiler accesses element 2 of that row.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 75

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• Many common array manipulations use for iteration statements.

• For example, the following statement sets all the elements in row 2 of
array a in Fig. 6.20 to zero:
• for (size_t column = 0; column <= 3; ++column) {
a[2][column] = 0;
}
• We specified row 2, so the first index is always 2.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 76

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• The loop varies only the second index.

• The preceding for statement is equivalent to the assignment
statements:
• a[2][0] = 0;
a[2][1] = 0;
a[2][2] = 0;
a[2][3] = 0;

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 77

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• The following nested for statement determines the total of all the
elements in array a.
• total = 0;
• for (size_t row = 0; row <= 2; ++row) {
for (size_t column = 0; column <= 3; ++column) {
total += a[row][column];
}
}
• The for statement totals the elements of the array one row at a
time.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 78

6.11 Multidimensional Arrays (Cont.)

• The outer for statement begins by setting row (i.e., the row index)
to 0 so that the elements of that row may be totaled by the inner
for statement.
• The outer for statement then increments row to 1, so the elements
of that row can be totaled.
• Then, the outer for statement increments row to 2, so the elements
of the third row can be totaled.
• When the nested for statement terminates, total contains the sum
of all the elements in the array a.

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 79

© 2016 Pearson Education, Ltd. All rights reserved. 80