🔹Jagged Arrays in C#

#csharp #programming

🧠 What is a Jagged Array?

A jagged array is an array of arrays, where each "row" (inner array) can have a different length.

It's like a table where each row has a different number of columns.

🧾 Think of it as:

int[][] jaggedArray;

✅ Each element of a jagged array is an array itself!

🧩 Syntax

// Declare a jagged array with 3 rows
int[][] jagged = new int[3][];

// Initialize each row with different sizes
jagged[0] = new int[2];  // 2 elements
jagged[1] = new int[4];  // 4 elements
jagged[2] = new int[1];  // 1 element

📦 Assigning Values

jagged[0][0] = 10;
jagged[0][1] = 20;

jagged[1][0] = 30;
jagged[1][1] = 40;
jagged[1][2] = 50;
jagged[1][3] = 60;

jagged[2][0] = 70;

🔍 Full Example: Declaring, Initializing, and Printing

using System;

class Program {
    static void Main() {
        int[][] jagged = new int[3][];

        jagged[0] = new int[] { 1, 2 };
        jagged[1] = new int[] { 3, 4, 5, 6 };
        jagged[2] = new int[] { 7 };

        for (int i = 0; i < jagged.Length; i++) {
            Console.Write("Row " + i + ": ");
            for (int j = 0; j < jagged[i].Length; j++) {
                Console.Write(jagged[i][j] + " ");
            }
            Console.WriteLine();
        }
    }
}

✅ Output:

Row 0: 1 2 
Row 1: 3 4 5 6 
Row 2: 7

🔄 Jagged vs. Multidimensional Arrays

Jagged Array	Multidimensional Array
Rows can have different lengths	All rows must have the same length
More flexible memory-wise	Simple matrix-style structure
`int[][] jagged;`	`int[,] matrix;`

🧠 Use Cases

Jagged arrays are useful when:

Data is irregular (e.g., a school with classes of different sizes)
You want to save memory by not allocating uniform size

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