what is array?

 what is array?

An array is a data structure that stores a fixed-size sequence of elements of the same type. It provides a way to organize and access multiple related values under a single name. Each element in an array is identified by its index or position within the array, starting from zero.

Arrays are commonly used in programming to store collections of data such as a list of numbers, a series of characters, or any other type of homogeneous data. They offer efficient random access to elements, which means you can access any element in constant time if you know its index.

Here's an example of an array in C:

#include <stdio.h> int main() { // Declare an array of integers int numbers[5]; // Assign values to the array elements numbers[0] = 10; numbers[1] = 20; numbers[2] = 30; numbers[3] = 40; numbers[4] = 50; // Access and print array elements printf("%d\n", numbers[0]); // Output: 10 printf("%d\n", numbers[2]); // Output: 30 printf("%d\n", numbers[4]); // Output: 50 return 0; }

In this example, we declare an array numbers of size 5, capable of holding 5 integers. We then assign values to each element using the square bracket notation and the index. Finally, we access and print individual elements by specifying the array name followed by the index inside square brackets.

Arrays can also be initialized at the time of declaration:

int numbers[5] = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50};

In addition to single-dimensional arrays, programming languages often support multidimensional arrays. These are arrays with more than one dimension, typically represented as a matrix or table-like structure. Multidimensional arrays can be useful for representing grids, tables, or other structured data.

Arrays provide a convenient and efficient way to work with collections of data. However, they have a fixed size determined at the time of declaration, and that size cannot be changed dynamically