malloc in C, but use multi-dimensional array syntax

Question

Is there any way to malloc a large array, but refer to it with 2D syntax? I want something like:

int *memory = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int)*400*200);
int MAGICV         


        

Answer 1

Yes, you can do this, and no, you don't need another array of pointers like most of the other answers are telling you. The invocation you want is just:

int (*MAGICVAR)[200] = malloc(400 * sizeof *MAGICVAR);
MAGICVAR[20][10] = 3; // sets the (200*20 + 10)th element

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If you wish to declare a function returning such a pointer, you can either do it like this:

int (*func(void))[200]
{
    int (*MAGICVAR)[200] = malloc(400 * sizeof *MAGICVAR);
    MAGICVAR[20][10] = 3;

    return MAGICVAR;
}

Or use a typedef, which makes it a bit clearer:

typedef int (*arrayptr)[200];

arrayptr function(void)
{
    /* ... */