Initialising a multidimensional array in Java

Try replacing the appropriate lines with:

myStringArray[0][x-1] = "a string";
myStringArray[0][y-1] = "another string";

Your code is incorrect because the sub-arrays have a length of y, and indexing starts at 0. So setting to myStringArray[0][y] or myStringArray[0][x] will fail because the indices x and y are out of bounds.

String[][] myStringArray = new String [x][y]; is the correct way to initialise a rectangular multidimensional array. If you want it to be jagged (each sub-array potentially has a different length) then you can use code similar to this answer. Note however that John's assertion that you have to create the sub-arrays manually is incorrect in the case where you want a perfectly rectangular multidimensional array.

You can also use the following construct:

String[][] myStringArray = new String [][] { { "X0", "Y0"},
                                             { "X1", "Y1"},
                                             { "X2", "Y2"},
                                             { "X3", "Y3"},
                                             { "X4", "Y4"} };

You can declare multi dimensional arrays like :

// 4 x 5 String arrays, all Strings are null
// [0] -> [null,null,null,null,null]
// [1] -> [null,null,null,null,null]
// [2] -> [null,null,null,null,null]
// [3] -> [null,null,null,null,null]

String[][] sa1 = new String[4][5];
for(int i = 0; i < sa1.length; i++) {           // sa1.length == 4
    for (int j = 0; j < sa1[i].length; j++) {     //sa1[i].length == 5
        sa1[i][j] = "new String value";
    }
}


// 5 x 0  All String arrays are null
// [null]
// [null]
// [null]
// [null]
// [null]
String[][] sa2 = new String[5][];
for(int i = 0; i < sa2.length; i++) {
    String[] anon = new String[ /* your number here */];
    // or String[] anon = new String[]{"I'm", "a", "new", "array"};
    sa2[i] = anon;
}

// [0] -> ["I'm","in","the", "0th", "array"]
// [1] -> ["I'm", "in", "another"]
String[][] sa3 = new String[][]{ {"I'm","in","the", "0th", "array"},{"I'm", "in", "another"}};

Java doesn't have "true" multidimensional arrays.

For example, arr[i][j][k] is equivalent to ((arr[i])[j])[k]. In other words, arr is simply an array, of arrays, of arrays.

So, if you know how arrays work, you know how multidimensional arrays work!

---

Declaration:

int[][][] threeDimArr = new int[4][5][6];

or, with initialization:

int[][][] threeDimArr = { { { 1, 2 }, { 3, 4 } }, { { 5, 6 }, { 7, 8 } } };

---

Access:

int x = threeDimArr[1][0][1];

or

int[][] row = threeDimArr[1];

---

String representation:

Arrays.deepToString(threeDimArr);

yields

"[[[1, 2], [3, 4]], [[5, 6], [7, 8]]]"

Useful articles

• Java: Initializing a multidimensional array
• Java: Matrices and Multidimensional Arrays