Is it bad practice to use multi-dimensional arrays in C/C++?

Question

Some programmers seem to violently hate them, while others seem to think they\'re fine. I know that anything that can be done to a multi-dimensional array can also be done to a

Answer 1

If multidimensional index computation bugs you, std::valarray with std::slice is the standard abstraction.

Answer 2

Well, in C++ I dislike multidimensional arrays because they should be replaced with std::vector<std::vector<t> >. They're also particularly important if you want to represent a std::vector<std::basic_string<t> >.

Multidimensional arrays are so simple a primitive I'm suprised most would care. However, a design that uses a single dimension is probably better than one using multiple dimensions, all other things being equal.

Answer 3

There are following advantages of multi-dimensional arrays over Vector<Vector<>>:

• They are easy to understand.
• Searching and sorting of elements can be done very easily.
• They are compatible with C.
• They are easy to type.