Map a 2D array onto a 1D array

Question

I want to represent a 2D array with a 1D array. A function will pass the two indicies (x,y) and the value to store. These two indicies would represent a single element of a 1D array, and set it accordingly. I know the 1D array needs to have the size of arrayWidth × arrayHeight, but I don't know how to set each element.

For example, how do I distinguish (2,4,3) from (4,2,3)? I tried setting the array as the x*y, but 2*4 and 4*2 would result in the same spot in the array and I need them to be different.

Answer 1

Example : we want to represent an 2D array of SIZE_X and SIZE_Y size. That means that we will have MAXY consecutive rows of MAXX size. Hence the set function is

void set_array( int x, int y, int val ) { array[ x * SIZE_Y + y ] = val; }

The get would be:

int get_array( int x, int y ) { return array[ x * SIZE_Y + y ]; }