MultiDimensional Array in JavaScript

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Although JavaScript does not provide inbuilt support for MultiDimensional Arrays, however you can create a multidimensional array by creating a new array as an element of an existing array. In this example, we will see how to create a 3x3 matrix in JavaScript

<script type="text/javascript">

    // declare array of multi dimensions
    var arrOfArr = new Array(3); 
    // or declare as [[],[],[]] as suggested by Elijah 
    // allocate storage
    for (var x = 0; x < arrOfArr.length; x++) {
        arrOfArr[x] = new Array(3);
    }

    // Populate the array
    // first array
    arrOfArr[0][0] = "00";
    arrOfArr[0][1] = "01";
    arrOfArr[0][2] = "02";

    // second array
    arrOfArr[1][0] = "10";
    arrOfArr[1][1] = "11";
    arrOfArr[1][2] = "12";

    // third array
    arrOfArr[2][0] = "20";
    arrOfArr[2][1] = "21";
    arrOfArr[2][2] = "22";

    alert(arrOfArr);
</script>

Although here arrOfArr seems to be a one-dimensional array, each elements of the array is initialized with another 1-D array, thus making it an array of array i.e. 2-D array.

Similarly for a three-dimensional array, you would declare the array using

arrOfArr[x][y] = new Array();

and then use it using the following code:

arrOfArr[0][0][3] = "some value";

and so on.

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About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, Developer Technologies MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) is the founder and contributor for DevCurry, DotNetCurry and SQLServerCurry. He is the Chief Editor of a Developer Magazine called DNC Magazine. He has also authored two Books - 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls. and The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Follow him on twitter @suprotimagarwal.