Accessing elements in multidimensional arrays

Projects Programming
1

Being a BASIC/FORTRAN programmer for years, the C/C++ structure is a bit strange to me. I prefer to solve my own problems so I can learn from them. I was having problems accessing array elements and found a document that gave a clear explanation of the use of pointers. It solved my problem, but my initial attempt worked just fine. Here's the first attempt with comments:

const unsigned int mostPermissive [][10] = { { 0, 18, 18, 33, 33, 1, 33, 33, 1, 0}, //0
{ 4, 20, 18, 36, 33, 1, 33, 33, 1, 1376}, //1
...........

const unsigned int nextBlock[][9] = { {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0},
{0, 3, 4,10, 0, 9, 5, 3, 0},
...........

for (i=0; i<54; i++) //go looking - mostPermissive [0] is lever state

  • {*
    _ if (leverState == mostPermissive [0]) //found it - mostPermissive column 0 is the lever state_
    * { //does this works because it's the first column?*
    * for (j=1; j<9; j++) // Set new signal aspects to most permissive*
    * {*
    _ if (signalAspect[j] != mostPermissive*[j]) //why does this work?
    { //should be != (mostPermissive + j);
    signalAspect[j] = mostPermissive[j];
    * setBoard[signalBoard[j]] = true;
    }
    }
    break;
    I spent a lot of time running in circles because after the above worked, this didn't:
    for (i = 1; i<9; i++)
    {
    signalBlock = nextBlock[switchState]; //signalBlock is the next block for Signal
    }
    this of course works just fine
    for (i = 1; i<9; i++)
    {
    signalBlock = *(nextBlock[switchState] + i); //signalBlock is the next block for Signal
    }*
    Can someone explain why the first code worked when it shouldn't?_
2

Did you re-read your post? Your code makes no sense at all. Put it in a code box

your code here
your code here

You can use pointers to access an element of a multidimensional array, but you don't have to. Here is the most common way to do that: C++ Multi-dimensional Arrays

3

And also show a full sketch, so we can see the type of the variables, and run the sketch ourselves.