c - Malloc compile error: a value of type "int" cannot be used to initialize an entity of type int (*)[30]

Question

I must have tried 20 ways of doing this by now. I really need help, no matter what I do i get a error similar to this one.

a value of type "int" cannot be used to initialize an entity of type "int (*)[30]"

i.e. this will get me such an error

int(*array)[160] = malloc((sizeof *array) * 10);

and doing something like this

int** Make2DintArray(int arraySizeX, int arraySizeY) {
    int** theArray;
    theArray = (int**) malloc(arraySizeX*sizeof(int*));
    int i;
    for (i = 0; i < arraySizeX; i++)
    {
        theArray[i] = (int*) malloc(arraySizeY*sizeof(int));
    }
    return theArray;
}

will get me this

"void *(size_t)" in "memory.c" at line 239 and: "int()" 

does anyone have a solution for how to successful allocate a 2dArray of int[160][10]

Answer 1

Try this:

int **array;
array = malloc(rows * sizeof(int *));
for (i = 0; i < rows; i++)
  array[i] = malloc(cols * sizeof(int));

// Some testing
for (i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
  for (j = 0; j < cols; j++)
    array[i][j] = 0; // or whatever you want
}

for (i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
  for (j = 0; j < cols; j++)
    printf("%d ", array[i][j]);
}

In your case rows = 160 and cols = 10. Is one possible solution.

With this approach you can use the two indexes: