adding dimension to 2d array

[markfranklin]

Have 2D array completed:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Need to add dimension:

1  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
2  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
etc

[smercurio_fc]

Is that first column supposed to be the "page" for the 3D array?

A Build Array is what you need to use.

[lmtis]

Or if you are creating a constant you can right click on it and select add dimension.

[markfranklin]

Thank you for the quick replies.
One problem remains, I do not have a second 2D array for the build function.
I simply have a dimension value, which varies of course.

[smercurio_fc]

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@markfranklin wrote:
One problem remains, I do not have a second 2D array for the build function.

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If you have a 1D array then make it into a 2D array using the same function. Please read the documentation on Build Array.

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I simply have a dimension value, which varies of course.

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I have no idea what this means.

[markfranklin]

The third dimension (shown as 1 and 2 on far left of first example) is simply a card number that needs to be stored with the 2D array of data.
I was hoping that this card number could be a third dimension to ease look-ups later.

[RavensFan]

Are you actually wanting to create a 3 dimensional array?  Or do you just want to add another row (or column) to a 2 dimensional array?

[markfranklin]

I believe that a 3D array would serve me best.

[smercurio_fc]

The thing you have to keep in mind with multi-dimensional arrays is that you can't have different number of elements for each row/column/page. This means that if you had a 2D array, you can't have, for example, row1 have 5 elements and row2 have 7 elements. Each row has to have the same number of columns. (The equivalent is true for columns). For a 3D array, each page has to have the same size 2D array. Thus, if you want to have the first page with a 2D array of 2 rows and 8 columns, and the second page be a 2D array of 1 row and 8 columns, you can't do that. The second page must be the same size - 2 rows and 8 columns.

If this is not acceptable for your application, then you must change your data structure. In your initial post you provided a small snippet, which seemed to imply that you were adding pages, with each page being the same size. Is this true?

[markfranklin]

Thank you.

An instrument VI outputs a 2D array for each card in the instrument (card number can vary).
Each time it outputs a 2D array, there is a card number associated with the data.
I had thought that it would be best to add a dimension for including the card number.
Perhaps that is a bad idea?

I am beginning to think that building or appending the 2D array to more simply include the the card number.