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Passing two dimensional character array (string array) into a function

By: IncludeHelp On 06 DEC 2016

In this program we will learn how to pass two dimensional character arrays (string array) into a function?

Here, we are declaring a 3x10 character array (number of rows left black compiler will occupy memory according to string initialization, number of columns are for each row is 10 that means a string can contain maximum of 10 characters).

Function description

void dispStrings(char x[][10],int n)

This function will print the string arrays (two dimensional character arrays) passed through x and; while passing two dimensional arrays there is no need to mention number of rows but number of columns are necessary.

• char x[][10] - Two dimensional character array that contains array of strings.
• int n - Number of rows (strings).

Passing Two-D character array into the function in c programming

#include <stdio.h>

void dispStrings(char x[][10],int n)
{
	int i=0;
	for(i=0;i<n;i++)
	{
		printf("%s\n",x[i]);
	}
	
}

int main()
{
	char a[][10]={
		"This",
		"is",
		"Mike"
	};
	
    dispStrings(a,3)	;
}

Output

    This
    is
    Mike

Two dimensional character array declaration with initialization

Consider the following statement

char a[][10]={
	"This",
	"is",
	"Mike"
};

Here we are initializing array a with the three strings "This", "is", "mike". In this declaration number char a[][10] - number of rows are three which is determining through initialization because there are three strings and number of columns are 10 that is the maximum value of a string.