What are the differences between a multidimensional array and an array of arrays in C#?
Array of arrays (jagged arrays) are faster than multi-dimensional arrays and can be used more effectively. Multidimensional arrays have nicer syntax.
If you write some simple code using jagged and multidimensional arrays and then inspect the compiled assembly with an IL disassembler you will see that the storage and retrieval from jagged (or single dimensional) arrays are simple IL instructions while the same operations for multidimensional arrays are method invocations which are always slower.
Consider the following methods:
static void SetElementAt(int[][] array, int i, int j, int value)
{
array[i][j] = value;
}
static void SetElementAt(int[,] array, int i, int j, int value)
{
array[i, j] = value;
}
Their IL will be the following:
.method private hidebysig static void SetElementAt(int32[][] 'array',
int32 i,
int32 j,
int32 'value') cil managed
{
// Code size 7 (0x7)
.maxstack 8
IL_0000: ldarg.0
IL_0001: ldarg.1
IL_0002: ldelem.ref
IL_0003: ldarg.2
IL_0004: ldarg.3
IL_0005: stelem.i4
IL_0006: ret
} // end of method Program::SetElementAt
.method private hidebysig static void SetElementAt(int32[0...,0...] 'array',
int32 i,
int32 j,
int32 'value') cil managed
{
// Code size 10 (0xa)
.maxstack 8
IL_0000: ldarg.0
IL_0001: ldarg.1
IL_0002: ldarg.2
IL_0003: ldarg.3
IL_0004: call instance void int32[0...,0...]::Set(int32,
int32,
int32)
IL_0009: ret
} // end of method Program::SetElementAt
When using jagged arrays you can easily perform such operations as row swap and row resize. Maybe in some cases usage of multidimensional arrays will be more safe, but even Microsoft FxCop tells that jagged arrays should be used instead of multidimensional when you use it to analyse your projects.
A multidimensional array creates a nice linear memory layout while a jagged array implies several extra levels of indirection.
Looking up the value jagged[3][6] in a jagged array var jagged = new int[10][5] works like this: Look up the element at index 3 (which is an array) and look up the element at index 6 in that array (which is a value). For each dimension in this case, there's an additional look up (this is an expensive memory access pattern).
A multidimensional array is laid out linearly in memory, the actual value is found by multiplying together the indexes. However, given the array var mult = new int[10,30], the Length property of that multidimensional array returns the total number of elements i.e. 10 * 30 = 300.
The Rank property of a jagged array is always 1, but a multidimensional array can have any rank. The GetLength method of any array can be used to get the length of each dimension. For the multidimensional array in this example mult.GetLength(1) returns 30.
Indexing the multidimensional array is faster. e.g. given the multidimensional array in this example mult[1,7] = 30 * 1 + 7 = 37, get the element at that index 37. This is a better memory access pattern because only one memory location is involved, which is the base address of the array.
A multidimensional array therefore allocates a continuous memory block, while a jagged array does not have to be square, e.g. jagged[1].Length does not have to equal jagged[2].Length, which would be true for any multidimensional array.
Performance
Performance wise, multidimensional arrays should be faster. A lot faster, but due to a really bad CLR implementation they are not.
23.084 16.634 15.215 15.489 14.407 13.691 14.695 14.398 14.551 14.252
25.782 27.484 25.711 20.844 19.607 20.349 25.861 26.214 19.677 20.171
5.050 5.085 6.412 5.225 5.100 5.751 6.650 5.222 6.770 5.305
The first row are timings of jagged arrays, the second shows multidimensional arrays and the third, well that's how it should be. The program is shown below, FYI this was tested running mono. (The windows timings are vastly different, mostly due to the CLR implementation variations).
On windows, the timings of the jagged arrays are greatly superior, about the same as my own interpretation of what multidimensional array look up should be like, see 'Single()'. Sadly the windows JIT-compiler is really stupid, and this unfortunately makes these performance discussions difficult, there are too many inconsistencies.
These are the timings I got on windows, same deal here, the first row are jagged arrays, second multidimensional and third my own implementation of multidimensional, note how much slower this is on windows compared to mono.
8.438 2.004 8.439 4.362 4.936 4.533 4.751 4.776 4.635 5.864
7.414 13.196 11.940 11.832 11.675 11.811 11.812 12.964 11.885 11.751
11.355 10.788 10.527 10.541 10.745 10.723 10.651 10.930 10.639 10.595
Source code:
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
static class ArrayPref
{
const string Format = "{0,7:0.000} ";
static void Main()
{
Jagged();
Multi();
Single();
}
static void Jagged()
{
const int dim = 100;
for(var passes = 0; passes < 10; passes++)
{
var timer = new Stopwatch();
timer.Start();
var jagged = new int[dim][][];
for(var i = 0; i < dim; i++)
{
jagged[i] = new int[dim][];
for(var j = 0; j < dim; j++)
{
jagged[i][j] = new int[dim];
for(var k = 0; k < dim; k++)
{
jagged[i][j][k] = i * j * k;
}
}
}
timer.Stop();
Console.Write(Format,
(double)timer.ElapsedTicks/TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond);
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
static void Multi()
{
const int dim = 100;
for(var passes = 0; passes < 10; passes++)
{
var timer = new Stopwatch();
timer.Start();
var multi = new int[dim,dim,dim];
for(var i = 0; i < dim; i++)
{
for(var j = 0; j < dim; j++)
{
for(var k = 0; k < dim; k++)
{
multi[i,j,k] = i * j * k;
}
}
}
timer.Stop();
Console.Write(Format,
(double)timer.ElapsedTicks/TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond);
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
static void Single()
{
const int dim = 100;
for(var passes = 0; passes < 10; passes++)
{
var timer = new Stopwatch();
timer.Start();
var single = new int[dim*dim*dim];
for(var i = 0; i < dim; i++)
{
for(var j = 0; j < dim; j++)
{
for(var k = 0; k < dim; k++)
{
single[i*dim*dim+j*dim+k] = i * j * k;
}
}
}
timer.Stop();
Console.Write(Format,
(double)timer.ElapsedTicks/TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond);
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
Simply put multidimensional arrays are similar to a table in DBMS.
Array of Array (jagged array) lets you have each element hold another array of the same type of variable length.
So, if you are sure that the structure of data looks like a table (fixed rows/columns), you can use a multi-dimensional array. Jagged array are fixed elements & each element can hold an array of variable length
E.g. Psuedocode:
int[,] data = new int[2,2];
data[0,0] = 1;
data[0,1] = 2;
data[1,0] = 3;
data[1,1] = 4;
Think of the above as a 2x2 table:
1 | 2 3 | 4
int[][] jagged = new int[3][];
jagged[0] = new int[4] { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
jagged[1] = new int[2] { 11, 12 };
jagged[2] = new int[3] { 21, 22, 23 };
Think of the above as each row having variable number of columns:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 11 | 12 21 | 22 | 23