Correct way of passing 2 dimensional array into a function

You should declare your function like this:

void display(int p[][numCols])

This C FAQ thoroughly explains why. The gist of it is that arrays decay into pointers once, it doesn't happen recursively. An array of arrays decays into a pointer to an array, not into a pointer to a pointer.

If (like in your case), you know the dimensions of the array at compilation-time, you can write justvoid display(int p[][numCols]).

Some explanation: You probably know that when you pass an array to a function, you actually pass a pointer to the first member. In C language, 2D array is just an array of arrays. Because of that, you should pass the function a pointer to the first sub-array in the 2D array. So, the natural way, is to say int (*p)[numCols] (that means p is a pointer, to an array of numCols ints). In function declaration, you have the "shortcut" p[], that means exactly the same thing like (*p) (But tells the reader, that you pass a pointer to a beginning of array, and not to just an one variable)

You are doing in wrong way. You can pass 2-d array with the help of pointer to an array, or simply pass an array or through Single pointer.

#define numRows 3
#define numCols 7
void display(int (*p)[numcols],int numRows,int numCols)//First method//
void display(int *p,int numRows,int numCols) //Second Method//
void display(int numRows,int numCols,int p[][numCols])  //Third Method
{
    printf("\n");
    for (int i = 0; i < numRows;i++)
    {
        for ( int j = 0; j < numCols;j++)
        {
            printf("%i\t",p[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
}

int main() {
    display(arr,numRows,numCols);
}

There are several, sometimes equivalent ways of doing this. By declaring an array (cf. method_c()), by using a pointer (cf. method_b()) or by using a pointer to an array of an array (cf. method_a()). method_b(), using a single pointer, is slightly more difficult to get right since it is not easy to use standard array indexing and hence, we use pointer arithmetic. method_a() and method_c() are basically equivalent since arrays decay non-recursively to pointers during compilation. Here is a little program illustrating all three methods. We first initialize a 2x4-array arr in a simple for loop and print it. It will look like this:

arr:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3

Afterwards we call all three methods. method_a() adds 1, method_b() adds 2 and method_c() adds 3 to all elements. After each call we print out the array arr again. If a function worked correctly you will easily see it on the output. Size is arbitrary and can be regulated via the two macros ROW and COL. One last note, method_c() relies on variable-length array present since C99.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define ROW 2
#define COL 4

void method_a(int m, int n, int (*ptr_arr)[n]);
void method_b(int m, int n, int *ptr_arr);
void method_c(int m, int n, int arr[][n]);

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

    int arr[ROW][COL];

    int i;
    int j;
    for(i = 0; i < ROW; i++) {
        for(j = 0; j < COL; j++) {
            arr[i][j] = j;
        }
    }

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

    printf("\n\n");

    method_a(ROW, COL, arr);

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

    printf("\n\n");

    printf("method_b() array:\n");
    method_b(ROW, COL, (int *)arr);

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

    printf("\n\n");

    method_c(ROW, COL, arr);

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

    printf("\n\n");

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

void method_a(int m, int n, int (*ptr_arr)[n])
{
    int i, j;
    for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
    {
        for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
        {
            ptr_arr[i][j] = j + 1;
        }
    }
}

void method_b(int m, int n, int *ptr_arr)
{
    int i, j;
    for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
    {
        for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
        {
            /* We need to use pointer arithmetic when indexing. */
            *((ptr_arr + i * n) + j) = j + 2;
        }
    }
    /* The whole function could have also been defined a bit different by taking
     * the i index out of the pointer arithmetic. n alone will then provide our
     * correct offset to the right. This may be a bit easier to understand. Our
     * for-loop would then look like this:
     * for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
     * {
     *     for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
     *     {
     *         *((ptr_arr + n) + j) = j + 2;
     *     }
     *     ptr_arr++;
     * }*/
}

void method_c(int m, int n, int arr[][n])
{
    int i, j;
    for (i = 0; i < m; i++)
    {
        for (j = 0; j < n; j++)
        {
            arr[i][j] = j + 3;
        }
    }
}