[Jatsui]

Hello ppl,

Does anyone know the largest 2D array possible in `C`.
So if there is arr[a][b], what are the limitations on the values of a and b ??

Cheers guys, appreciate it as always !!

[xpi0t0s]

Depends on the platform. a and b are integers, so presumably the maximum allowed by the language is 2^32-1. But (2^32-1)^2 is a LOT of memory, 16 exabytes to be precise, so the chances are you're limited by RAM first, then secondly stack or heap space depending how you declare it.

[Jatsui]

So I take it that I need to check the following for array size restrictions..
1) RAM
2) Stack/heap space depending on declaration


Can you explain a bit about point 2) - What do you exactly mean by how I declare it ??


Thanks again.

[xpi0t0s]

int main()
{
  int *arr1=malloc(100*sizeof(int));
  int arr2[10][10];
  return 0;
}

arr1 will be on the heap, arr2 on the stack. How you declare variables can determine where in memory they are kept. There are different types of memory; local variables go on the stack and are overwritten as functions call/return, globals go in a different type of memory (BSS I think), and malloc/new'd memory is taken off the heap.

So if you have a small stack and a large heap you will need to malloc large arrays. Conversely if you have a large stack and a small heap then you can plonk the array on the stack, provided that you don't want to keep it after the function has returned.