Question

Hi
I’m new to c language i hava a problem :
i want to send a 2-d array to a function via pointer.
The function should return pointer to 2-d array.
I wrote the following code for this :

#include<stdio.h>
int* put(int *b);
int main()
{
  int a[2][3],i,j;
  system("clear");  
  put(a);

  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
    { 
      for(j=0;j<3;j++)
        {    
          printf("\na[%d][%d]= %d",i,j,a[i][j]);
        }
    }

  return 0;
}

int* put(int *b)
{
  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
  {
    for(j=0;j<3;j++)
      {
        b[i][j]=i;
      }
  }
  return b;
}

when i compile it with gcc2de.c it shows following errors :

2de.c: In function ‘main’:
2de.c:9: warning: passing argument 1 of ‘put’ from incompatible pointer type
2de.c:3: note: expected ‘int *’ but argument is of type ‘int (*)[3]’
2de.c: In function ‘put’:
2de.c:28: error: subscripted value is neither array nor pointer
2de.c: In function ‘main’:
2de.c:32: error: expected declaration or statement at end of input

Than i just change the code of function which is following :

#include<stdio.h>

int* put(int **b);

int main()
{
  int a[2][3],i,j;
  system("clear");  
  put(a);

  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
    { 
      for(j=0;j<3;j++)
        {    
          printf("\na[%d][%d]= %d",i,j,a[i][j]);
        }
    }

  return 0;
}

int* put(int **b)
{
  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
    {
      for(j=0;j<3;j++)
        {
          b[i][j]=i;
        }
    }
  return b;
}

when i complie it i got following errors:

2de.c: In function ‘main’:
2de.c:9: warning: passing argument 1 of ‘put’ from incompatible pointer type
2de.c:3: note: expected ‘int **’ but argument is of type ‘int (*)[3]’
2de.c: In function ‘put’:
2de.c:31: warning: return from incompatible pointer type
2de.c: In function ‘main’:
2de.c:32: error: expected declaration or statement at end of input
2de.c: In function ‘main’:
2de.c:9: warning: passing argument 1 of ‘put’ from incompatible pointer type
2de.c:3: note: expected ‘int **’ but argument is of type ‘int (*)[3]’
2de.c: In function ‘put’:
2de.c:31: warning: return from incompatible pointer type
2de.c: In function ‘main’:
2de.c:32: error: expected declaration or statement at end of input

what I’m doing wrong ?
can anybody tell me what is the way to pass 2d-array via pointers to a function ?
can anybody tell me how to return two d array via pointer in a function

Answer 1

The first error that you have is that you are not passing a correct type as declared by your function. So to clean up your code with the least amount of corrections, it would probably look something like this:

#include<stdio.h>

void put(int *b);

int main()
{
  int a[2][3],i,j;

    put(&a[0][0]);

  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
  { 
    for(j=0;j<3;j++)
    {    
      printf("\na[%d][%d]= %d", i, j, a[i][j]);
    }
  }

  printf("\n\n");

  system("PAUSE");  // Not recommended, but works for now
return 0;
}

void put(int *b)
{
  int count = 1;
  int i, j;

  for(i=0;i<2;i++)
  {
    for(j=0;j<3;j++)
    {
      //b[i][j]=i;
      *(b + ((i*3) + j)) = count++;
    }
  }

}

The two major corrections are:

1. You pass in the start address of your 2-D array explicitly by addressing it as &a[0][0].
2. Also, note the pointer arithmetic that you’ll have to use when you use an int *b as well.

Note also that since you’re passing in a pointer, you’re modifying the value at that address location. Thus there is no need to return a pointer back at all.

Hope it helps. Cheers!