What is a 3-D array?

Arrays are used to store data and information on various data types. The greatest advantage of arrays is that they allow all data to be accessed in O(1) time complexity.

3-D arrays

3-D arrays are referred to as multi-dimensional arrays. Multi-dimensional arrays are defined as an “array of arrays” that store data in a tabular form.

Imagine this, an array list of data elements makes a 1-D (one-dimensional) array. An array of 1-D arrays makes a 2-D (two-dimensional) array. Similarly, an array of 2-D arrays makes a 3-D ( three-dimensional) array.

A 3-D array can be declared as follows:

int arr[4][5][8]
// declares an 3-D integer array

This array can store a total of 4 X 5 X 8 = 160 elements.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
 int arr[2][3][3] = 
    { 
        { {0,1,2}, {2,3,4}, {6,7,1} }, 
        { {6,7, 1}, {8,9, 2}, {9,14, 22} } 
    }; 
    // accessing a single value i.e 0
    cout << arr[0][0][0] << endl;
  
    // output each element's value by iterating through the array 
    for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) 
    { 
        for (int j = 0; j < 3; ++j) 
        { 
            for (int k = 0; k < 3; ++k) 
            {              
                cout << "Element at arr[" << i << "][" << j 
                     << "][" << k << "] = " << arr[i][j][k] 
                     << endl;
       
            } 
        }     
    } 
    return 0; 
}

Lines 5-9: We defined a 3-D array with the name of arr[] and it would have dimensions of $2\times3\times3$ and we have assigned values to its elements.
Line 12: We print the value of the element at the index [0][0][0] of the array arr.
Lines 15-27: This nested loop structure iterates through each element of the 3-dimensional array arr and prints out its indices along with its value.

After understanding 3-D array implementation in C++, it's time to understand that same example in Java.

3-D array in Java

Click the "Run" button to execute the 3D array example below:

class HelloWorld {
    public static void main( String args[] ) {
        
         int[][][] arr = { 
        { {0,1,2}, {2,3,4}, {6,7,1} }, 
        { {6,7, 1}, {8,9, 2}, {9,14, 22} } 
        };
        // accessing single value i.e 0
        System.out.println(arr[0][0][0]);
    // output each element's value by iterating through the array 
        for (int i = 0; i < 2; ++i) 
        { 
            for (int j = 0; j < 3; ++j) 
            { 
                for (int k = 0; k < 3; ++k) 
                { 
                
                    System.out.println("Element at arr[" + i + "][" + j
                        + "][" + k + "] = " + arr[i][j][k]);
            
                } 
            }         
        }          
    }
}

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What is a 3-D array?

3-D arrays

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3-D array in C++

3-D array in Java