Create 2D array by passing pointer to function in c

Question

So I read dozens of examples of passing an 2D array pointer to function to get/change values of that array in function. But is it possible to create (allocate memory) inside

Answer 1

Yes, passing a pointer to int ** (but 3 stars is considered bad style), I suggest to return an allocated variable from your function:

int **createArr(int x, int y)
{
    int **arrPtr;
    int i, j;       //Loop indexes

    arrPtr = malloc(x*sizeof(int*));
    if (arrPtr == NULL) { /* always check the return of malloc */
        perror("malloc");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    for (i = 0; i < x; ++i) {
        arrPtr[i] = malloc(y*sizeof(int));
        if (arrPtr[i] == NULL) {
            perror("malloc");
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
    }
    for (i = 0; i < x; ++i) {
        for (j = 0; j < y; ++j) {
            arrPtr[i][j] = i + j;
        }
    }
    return arrPtr;   
}

Call it using:

arr = createArr(x, y);