Return a 2d array from a function

This code returns a 2d array.

 #include <cstdio>

    // Returns a pointer to a newly created 2d array the array2D has size [height x width]

    int** create2DArray(unsigned height, unsigned width)
    {
      int** array2D = 0;
      array2D = new int*[height];
    
      for (int h = 0; h < height; h++)
      {
            array2D[h] = new int[width];
    
            for (int w = 0; w < width; w++)
            {
                  // fill in some initial values
                  // (filling in zeros would be more logic, but this is just for the example)
                  array2D[h][w] = w + width * h;
            }
      }
    
      return array2D;
    }
    
    int main()
    {
      printf("Creating a 2D array2D\n");
      printf("\n");
    
      int height = 15;
      int width = 10;
      int** my2DArray = create2DArray(height, width);
      printf("Array sized [%i,%i] created.\n\n", height, width);
    
      // print contents of the array2D
      printf("Array contents: \n");
    
      for (int h = 0; h < height; h++)
      {
            for (int w = 0; w < width; w++)
            {
                  printf("%i,", my2DArray[h][w]);
            }
            printf("\n");
      }
    
          // important: clean up memory
          printf("\n");
          printf("Cleaning up memory...\n");
          for (int h = 0; h < height; h++) // loop variable wasn't declared
          {
            delete [] my2DArray[h];
          }
          delete [] my2DArray;
          my2DArray = 0;
          printf("Ready.\n");
    
      return 0;
    }

A better alternative to using pointers to pointers is to use std::vector. That takes care of the details of memory allocation and deallocation.

std::vector<std::vector<int>> create2DArray(unsigned height, unsigned width)
{
   return std::vector<std::vector<int>>(height, std::vector<int>(width, 0));
}

That code isn't going to work, and it's not going to help you learn proper C++ if we fix it. It's better if you do something different. Raw arrays (especially multi-dimensional arrays) are difficult to pass correctly to and from functions. I think you'll be much better off starting with an object that represents an array but can be safely copied. Look up the documentation for std::vector.

In your code, you could use vector<vector<int> > or you could simulate a 2-D array with a 36-element vector<int>.