How can we dynamically allocate contiguous memory to 2D array ??

Question

What is the optimize way to allocate memory to 2D array dynamically ??

Answer 1

Lets you want to allocate memory for 3X4 2D array.
row = 3 column = 4
first allocate memory for rows.

int **array =NULL:
array =  (int**) malloc (sizeof(int*));

now allocate memory for matrix ;
int *ptr =-NULL;
ptr  = (int *)malloc (sizeof(int) X 3 X4)

for (i = 0; i< 3; i++)
array[i] = ptr + (i * 4);

malloc is a complex. so we call it two times.
now memory for 2D array is contiguous.

Answer 2

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#define ROW 3
#define COL 4
int main()
{
    int ** arr;
    int * tmparr;
    int i,j;
    tmparr = malloc((ROW + ( ROW * COL))*sizeof(int));
    arr = (int **) tmparr;


    for (i=0;i<ROW;i++)
    {
        *(arr + i) = (tmparr + ROW + i * COL);
    }

    for (i = 0; i < ROW; i++)
        for (j = 0; j < COL; j++)
            arr[i][j] = (i + 1)*(1 +j);

    for (i = 0; i < ROW; i++)
    {
        printf("\n");
        for (j = 0; j < COL; j++)
            printf("arr[%d][%d] = %d ", i, j, arr[i][j]);
    }

    return (0);
}