hello! this is in VB. Is one dimensional and 2 dimensional array the same except that the 2 dimensional have 2 subscripts for example, one dimensional array dim Array1(1) as integer Array(0) = 20 Array(1) = 23 2 dimensional Array dim Array2(1,1) as integer Array2(0,0) = 1 Array2(0,1) = 3 Array2(1,0) = 34 Array2(1,1) = 23 I think the array is the same except the index is different. If so, why bother with 2 dimensional array when one dimensional could hold the same information.

You are missing th point of a two dimension array. In fact a two dimension array can hold twice the information of a one dimension array. Imagine you are programming a chess game. You need to map the board which is a two dimension object, eight squares in one direction and eight squares in the other direction, length and breadth. You would define an array of 7 x 7. That way you can address any of the 64 squares in the board. You can't do that with a single dimension array. If you wished to map a three dimensional object like a Rubik's cube you would the need a three dimension array, length, breadth and depth. Multidimensional arrays come in very handy when you are programming a data processing application. It makes data handling a whole lot simpler as one dimension can be the number of fields in a record and the other dimension can be the number of records in the record set. Bear in mind though that a two dimensional array uses more memory than a single dimension array of equivalent size. e.g a 10 element two dimension array will use more memory than two 10 element single dimension arrays. Stuart

StuartS: That way you can address any of the 64 squares in the board. You can't do that with a single dimension array. Dim squares(63) As Square StuartS: a 10 element two dimension array will use more memory than two 10 element single dimension arrays. I'm not convinced a single 10 x 2 array would take up any more room than two 10 x 1 arrays. Do you have any information to back this up?

You could use a single dimension array but it would be more difficult to manipulate unless Square is a pre-defined data type I have not come across before. If that is the case I would also expect there to be a Cube data type as well. In this case I would define the array as Dim squares(7,7) As Integer Empirical evidence has shown that that a multi-dimensional takes up more memory than the equivalent single dimension array - at least in VB it does. Stuart

StuartS: Empirical evidence... ...Means nothing. But I don't have anything supporting my position. Curiosity demands an answer, however, so let's find out! Since there are Fifty-QuaBillion different versions of Basic, let's talk about the versions I have readily available: VB.NET 2K8 and VBScript. The setup: So we'll compare each version's private bytes, and since I'm already using VBScript, I might as well write a WMI script. Why? Partly because WMI won't round the numbers, but largely because text is easier to copy/paste. The script in question (PrivateBytes.vbs): Set WMI = GetObject("winmgmts:") For Each a In WScript.Arguments PID = 0 If WMI.Get("Win32_Process").Create(a, Null, Null, PID) Then WScript.Echo "Process start failed." WScript.Quit 1 End If With WMI.ExecNotificationQuery("SELECT * " & _ "FROM __instancedeletionevent " & _ "WITHIN 1 " & _ "WHERE TargetInstance ISA " & _ "'Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process'" & _ "AND TargetInstance.IDProcess = " & PID) With .NextEvent.TargetInstance WSCript.Echo "Private bytes for " & a & _ " (PID " & PID & "): " & _ FormatNumber(.PrivateBytes, 0) & " B" End With End With Next 'a Q&D, but it gets the job done. This'll run a program, then return the program's private bytes on exit. VB.NET: Let's make two versions of the same program. One using a one dimensional array, the other two. 1D.EXE Module Module1 Sub Main() Dim i As Integer, j As Integer Dim a(9999) As Integer For i = 0 To 9999 a(i) = i Next System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(30000) End Sub End Module 2D.EXE Module Module1 Sub Main() Dim i As Integer, j As Integer Dim a(99, 99) As Integer For i = 0 To 99 For j = 0 To 99 a(i, j) = i * 100 + j Next Next System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(30000) End Sub End Module The results? E:\1>PrivateBytes.vbs e:\1\1D.exe e:\1\2D.exe Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Private bytes for e:\1\1D.exe (PID 4776): 7,000,064 B Private bytes for e:\1\2D.exe (PID 3720): 7,000,064 B Sun 03/22/2009 8.56.14.06 + E:\1> So there you go. No size difference VBScript: As VBS is a scripting language and not a programming language, the size might very well be different. After all, who really knows what goes on in that VBS engine? Also note I cut the wait down to 5 seconds, because 30 was really just too long. 1D.VBS Dim i, j Dim a(9999) For i = 0 To 9999 a(i) = i Next 'i WScript.Sleep 5000 2D.VBS Dim i, j Dim a(99,99) For i = 0 To 99 For j = 0 To 99 a(i, j) = i * 100 + j Next 'j Next 'i WScript.Sleep 5000 Results! E:\1>PrivateBytes.vbs "wscript e:\1\1D.vbs" "wscript e:\1\2D.vbs" Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.7 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Private bytes for wscript e:\1\1D.vbs (PID 5316): 2,899,968 B Private bytes for wscript e:\1\2D.vbs (PID 4532): 2,899,968 B Sun 03/22/2009 9.00.43.05 + E:\1> So there you go. Our two dimensional syntactical sugar won't eat up our memory.