Programming in Practical Engineering

Languages

Chapter 5 : C Arrays

BURKINA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Electrical Engineering
(E.E)

Academic year : 2024-2025

Semester 3

24 octobre 2024
Course outline

1 Arrays definition in C language

2 Access Array Elements

3 Traversal Array Elements

4 Arrays dimensions

5 Applications

(B.i.t/E.E, S3) Engineering Practical Programming 24 octobre 2024 2 / 40

Quote

A programming language is a convention for giving commands to a

computer. It’s not supposed to be obscure, weird and full of

subtle traps...

Dave Small

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1. Arrays definition in C language

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.1. Introduction
An array in C is a fixed-size collection of similar data
items stored in contiguous memory locations.

It can be used to store the collection of primitive data

types such as int, char, float, etc., and also derived and
user-defined data types such as pointers, structures, etc.

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.2. Advantages of Array in C

Random and fast access of elements using the array index.

Use of fewer lines of code as it creates a single array of

multiple elements.

Traversal through the array becomes easy using a single loop.

Sorting becomes easy as it can be accomplished by writing

fewer lines of code.

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.3. Disadvantages of Array in C

Allows a fixed number of elements to be entered which is
decided at the time of declaration.

Unlike a linked list, an array in C is not dynamic.

Insertion and deletion of elements can be costly since the

elements are needed to be rearranged after insertion and
deletion.

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.4. Explanation array

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.5. C Array Declaration

In C, we have to declare the array like any other variable
before using it.

We can declare an array by specifying its name, the type of

its elements, and the size of its dimensions.

When we declare an array in C, the compiler allocates the

memory block of the specified size to the array name.

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 1. Arrays definition in C language
1.5.1. Syntax of Array Declaration
1 data_type array_name [ size ];
2

3 data_type array_name [ size1 ] [ size2 ]...[ sizeN ];

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 1. Arrays definition in C language
1.5.2. Example of Array Declaration
1 // C Program to illustrate the array declaration
2 # include < stdio .h >
3
4 int main () {
5 // declaring array of integers
6 int arr_int [5];
7 // declaring array of characters
8 char arr_char [5];
9
10 return 0;
11 }

The C arrays are static in nature, i.e., they are allocated

memory at the compile time.

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.6. C Array Initialization

Initialization in C is the process to assign some initial
value to the variable.

So, we need to initialize the array to some meaningful value.

There are multiple ways to initialize an array in C :

Array initialization with declaration

Array initialization with declaration without size

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.6.1. Array Initialization with declaration

We initialize the array along with its declaration.

We use an initializer list to initialize multiple elements of

the array.

An initializer list is the list of values enclosed within

braces {} separated b a comma:

data_type array_name [size] = {value1, value2, ... valueN};

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1. Arrays definition in C language

1.6.2. Array Initialization with declaration without size

If we initialize an array using an initializer list, we can
skip declaring the size of the array as the compiler can
automatically deduce the size of the array in these cases.

The size of the array in these cases is equal to the number

of elements present in the initializer list as the compiler
can automatically deduce the size of the array.

data_type array_name [ ] = {value1, value2, ... valueN};

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 1. Arrays definition in C language
1.6.3. Examples
1 # include < stdio .h >
2

3 int main () {
4 // array initialization using initialier list
5 int arr [5] = { 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 };
6

7 /*
8 array initialization using initializer list without
9 specifying size
10 */
11 int arr1 [ ] = { 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 };
12

13 return 0;
14 }

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 2. Access array elements

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2. Access array elements

2.1. Definition
We can access any element of an array in C using the array
subscript operator [ ] and the index value i of the element.

array_name [index];

One thing to note is that the indexing in the array always

starts with 0

The first element is at index 0, the last element is at N – 1

where N is the number of elements in the array.

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2. Access array elements

2.2. Explanation

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 2. Access array elements
2.3. Examples
1 # include < stdio .h >
2
3 int main () {
4 // array declaration and initialization
5 int arr [5] = { 15 , 25 , 35 , 45 , 55 };
6
7 // accessing element at index 2 i . e 3 rd element
8 printf ( " Element at arr [2]: % d \ n " , arr [2]) ;
9
10 // accessing element at index 4 i . e last element
11 printf ( " Element at arr [4]: % d \ n " , arr [4]) ;
12
13 // accessing element at index 0 i . e first element
14 printf ( " Element at arr [0]: % d " , arr [0]) ;
15
16 return 0;
17 }

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 3. Traversal array elements

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3. Traversal array elements

3.1. Definition
Traversal is the process in which we visit every element of
the data structure.

For C array traversal, we use loops to iterate through each

element of the array.

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3. Traversal array elements
3.2. Explanation

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 3. Traversal array elements

3.3. Array traversal using for Loop

1 for ( int i = 0; i < N ; i ++)
2 {
3 array_name [ i ];
4 }

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 3. Traversal array elements
3.4. Example
1 # include < stdio .h >
2
3 int main () {
4 // array declaration and initialization
5 int arr [5] = { 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 };
6
7 // modifying element at index 2
8 arr [2] = 100;
9
10 // traversing array using for loop
11 printf ( " Elements in Array : " ) ;
12 for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i ++) {
13 printf ( " % d " , arr [ i ]) ;
14 }
15 return 0;
16 }

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 4. Arrays dimensions

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4. Arrays dimensions

4.1. Generalities
There are two types of arrays based on the number of
dimensions it has.

One Dimensional Arrays (1D Array )

Multidimensional Arrays nD Array

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4. Arrays dimensions
4.2. One dimensional array in C
The One-dimensional arrays are those arrays that have only
one dimension.
Syntax of 1D Array in C
array_name [size];

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 4. Arrays dimensions
4.2.1. Example 1
1 # include < stdio .h >
2 int main () {
3 // 1 d array declaration
4 int arr [5];
5
6 // 1 d array initialization using for loop
7 for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i ++) {
8 arr [ i ] = i * i - 2 * i + 1;
9 }
10
11 printf ( " Elements of Array : " ) ;
12 // printing 1 d array by traversing using for loop
13 for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i ++) {
14 printf ( " % d " , arr [ i ]) ;
15 }
16 return 0;
17 }

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 4. Arrays dimensions
4.2.2. Example 2
1 # include < stdio .h >
2 int main () {
3 // creating array of character
4 char arr [7] = { ’B ’ , ’i ’ , ’t ’ , ’ ’ , ’E ’ , ’E ’ , ’ \0 ’ };
5

6 // printing string
7 int i = 0;
8 while ( arr [ i ]) {
9 printf ( " % c " , arr [ i ++]) ;
10 }
11 return 0;
12 }

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4. Arrays dimensions

4.3. One dimensional array in C

Multi-dimensional Arrays in C are those arrays that have more
than one dimension.
Some of the popular multidimensional arrays are 2D arrays and
3D arrays.
We can declare arrays with more dimensions than 3d arrays but
they are avoided as they get very complex and occupy a large
amount of space.

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4. Arrays dimensions
4.3.1. Two dimensional array in C
A Two-Dimensional array is an array that has two dimensions.
They can be visualized in the form of rows and columns
organized in a two-dimensional plane.
Syntax of 2D Array in C
array_name [size1] [size2];

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 4. Arrays dimensions
4.3.2. Example
1 # include < stdio .h >
2 int main () {
3 // declaring and initializing 2 d array
4 int arr [2][3] = { 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 , 60 };
5
6 printf ( " 2 D Array :\ n " ) ;
7 // printing 2 d array
8 for ( int i = 0; i < 2; i ++) {
9 for ( int j = 0; j < 3; j ++) {
10 printf ( " % d " , arr [ i ][ j ]) ;
11 }
12 printf ( " \ n " ) ;
13 }
14
15 return 0;
16 }

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4. Arrays dimensions

4.4.1. Three dimensional array in C

A 3D array has exactly three dimensions.
It can be visualized as a collection of 2D arrays stacked on
top of each other to create the third dimension.
Syntax of 3D Array in C
array_name [size1] [size2] [size3];

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 4. Arrays dimensions
4.4.2. Example
1 # include < stdio .h >
2 int main () {
3 // 3 D array declaration
4 int arr [2][2][2] = { 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 , 60 };
5
6 // printing elements
7 for ( int i = 0; i < 2; i ++) {
8 for ( int j = 0; j < 2; j ++) {
9 for ( int k = 0; k < 2; k ++) {
10 printf ( " % d " , arr [ i ][ j ][ k ]) ;
11 }
12 printf ( " \ n " ) ;
13 }
14 printf ( " \ n \ n " ) ;
15 }
16 return 0;
17 }

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 5. Applications

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 5. Arrays dimensions
5.1. Application 1
1 # include < stdio .h >
2 int main () {
3 // declaring an integer array
4 int arr [5];
5
6 // taking input to array elements one by one
7 for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i ++) {
8 scanf ( " % d " , & arr [ i ]) ;
9 }
10
11 // printing array elements
12 printf ( " Array Elements : " ) ;
13 for ( int i = 0; i < 5; i ++) {
14 printf ( " % d " , arr [ i ]) ;
15 }
16 return 0;
17 }

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 5. Arrays dimensions
5.2. Application 2

1 # include < stdio .h >

2 // function to calculate average of the function
3 float getAverage ( float * arr , int size ) {
4 int sum = 0;
5 // calculating cumulative sum of all the array elements
6 for ( int i = 0; i < size ; i ++) {
7 sum += arr [ i ];
8 }
9 return sum / size ; // returning average
10 }
11
12 int main () {
13 float arr [5] = { 10 , 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 };
14 // size of array using sizeof operator
15 int n = sizeof ( arr ) / sizeof ( float ) ;
16
17 printf ( " Array Elements : " ) ; // printing array elements
18 for ( int i = 0; i < n ; i ++) {
19 printf ( " %.0 f " , arr [ i ]) ;
20 }
21
22 // calling getAverage function and printing average
23 printf ( " \ nAverage : %.2 f " , getAverage ( arr , n ) ) ;
24 return 0;
25 }
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 5. Arrays dimensions
5.3. Application 3
1 # include < stdio .h >
2 // function to return max value
3 int getMax ( int * arr , int size ) {
4 int max = arr [0];
5 for ( int i = 1; i < size ; i ++) {
6 if ( max < arr [ i ]) {
7 max = arr [ i ];
8 }
9 }
10 return max ;
11 }
12
13 int main () {
14 int arr [5] = { 135 , 15 , 1 , 19 , 51 };
15
16 printf ( " Largest Number in the Array : % d " ,
17 getMax ( arr , 5) ) ;
18
19 return 0;
20 }

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Conclusion

4.3. One dimensional array in C

The array is one of the most used and important data
structures in C.

It is one of the core concepts of C language that is used in

every other program.

Though it is important to know about its limitation so that

we can take advantage of its functionality.

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 ==END==

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