Performance comparison of array of arrays vs multidimensional arrays

Question

When I was using C++ in college, I was told to use multidimensional arrays (hereby MDA) whenever possible, since it exhibits better memory locality since it\'s allocated in

Answer 1

Java and C# allocate memory in much different fashion that C++ does. In fact, in .NET for sure all the arrays of AoA will be close together if they are allocated one after another because memory there is just one continuous chunk without any fragmentation whatsoever.

But it is still true for C++ and still makes sense if you want maximum speed. Although you shouldn't follow that advise every time you want multidimensional array, you should write maintainable code first and then profile it if it is slow, premature optimization is root for all evil in this world.