Question

How is a jagged array declared?

1) By putting two sets of parentheses after the array variable name
2) By using an initialization list in the declaration statement
3) By leaving the second set of parentheses blank
4) By indicating the number of rows in the first set of parentheses

Answer 1

A jagged array is declared by using an initialization list in the declaration statement, which allows creating arrays of arrays with different sizes.

Step-by-step explanation:

A jagged array, also known as a "ragged" array, is an array of arrays in which the member arrays can be of different sizes, creating a non-rectangular data structure. In many programming languages, such as C# and Java, jagged arrays can be declared by using an initialization list in the declaration statement, which corresponds to option 2 from the choices provided.

To declare a jagged array in C# for example, you would first declare the array with one set of square brackets, specifying the number of rows (or the top-level array size), and then initialize each row with another array of a potentially different size:

int[][] jaggedArray = new int[3][]; jaggedArray[0] = new int[5]; jaggedArray[1] = new int[4]; jaggedArray[2] = new int[2];

This declares a jagged array with three rows, where sizes of individual rows are 5, 4, and 2 respectively.