Question

I think this might be a pretty simple question, but I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. If I’ve got a 2-dimensional array like so:

int[,] array = new int[2,3] { {1, 2, 3}, {4, 5, 6} };

What’s the best way to iterate through each dimension of the array with a nested foreach statement?

Answer 1

If you want to iterate over every item in the array as if it were a flattened array, you can just do:

foreach (int i in array) {
    Console.Write(i);
}

which would print

123456

If you want to be able to know the x and y indexes as well, you’ll need to do:

for (int x = 0; x < array.GetLength(0); x += 1) {
    for (int y = 0; y < array.GetLength(1); y += 1) {
        Console.Write(array[x, y]);
    }
}

Alternatively you could use a jagged array instead (an array of arrays):

int[][] array = new int[2][] { new int[3] {1, 2, 3}, new int[3] {4, 5, 6} };
foreach (int[] subArray in array) {
    foreach (int i in subArray) {
        Console.Write(i);
    }
}

or

int[][] array = new int[2][] { new int[3] {1, 2, 3}, new int[3] {4, 5, 6} };
for (int j = 0; j < array.Length; j += 1) {
    for (int k = 0; k < array[j].Length; k += 1) {
        Console.Write(array[j][k]);
    }
}