Question

I want to create a 2-dimensional array with an index-number in each first element.

(my previous question brought me to this point >)

this works:

$('#create_indexed_array').click(function() {
    var new_array = [[9,9],[9,9],[9,9],[9,9],[9,9]];
    for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        new_array[i][0] = i;
    }

    alert(JSON.stringify(new_array));

});

BUT this works not:

$('#create_indexed_array').click(function() {
    var new_array = new Array(new Array());
    for (var i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
        new_array[0][i] = ""; // create cols
    } 
    for (var i = 1; i < 5; i++) {
        new_array[i] = new_array[0]; // create rows
    }
    for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        new_array[i][0] = i; // set index
    }
    alert(JSON.stringify(new_array));

});

EDIT:
my final working version (so far):

var myArray  = [];
var rows = 5;
var cols = 2;

for (var i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
    myArray [i] = [];
    for (var j = 0; j < cols; j++) {
        if (j==0) myArray [i][j] = i;
        else myArray [i][j] = '';
    }
}

alert(JSON.stringify(myArray));

(r) mostly by jfriend 😉

still don’t know why it isn’t possible to declare the 2D array at the beginning with: myArray = [[]]

Answer 1

Following your current pattern, it will work like this:

$('#create_indexed_array').click(function() {
    var myArray = [[]];
    for (var i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
        myArray[0][i] = ""; // create cols
    } 
    for (i = 1; i < 5; i++) {
        // create copy of first row in each other row
        myArray[i] = myArray[0].slice(0); 
    }
    for (i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        myArray[i][0] = i; // set index
    }
    alert(JSON.stringify(myArray));
});​

Working demo: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/vJDPp/

One thing you have to remember is that assigning an array assigns a reference to that array, not a copy so if you want each element of the array to be different, you have to physically make a copy of the first row to put in the subsequent rows. I’d also recommend changing the name of new_array because that sounds so much like a function name that it makes the code confusing to read to someone who doens’t know it.

---

If you’re just trying to initialize a 2D array to all 9’s like in your first code example, then this would be much simpler:

$('#create_indexed_array').click(function() {
    var myArray = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
        myArray[i] = [];
        for (var j = 0; j < 2; j++) {
            myArray[i][j] = 9;
        }
    }
    alert(JSON.stringify(myArray));
});

Or a function version:

function create2DArray(lenX, lenY, initVal) {
    var myArray = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < lenX; i++) {
        myArray[i] = [];
        for (var j = 0; j < lenY; j++) {
            myArray[i][j] = initVal;
        }
    }
    return(myArray);
}