Objective C, maze generation and 2D arrays - objective-c

Question

I need to generate a random maze with given width and height. I could do this in Perl with Depth-first search algorithm, in which I use 2D arrays, something like this:
for my $i (0 .. $h - 1) {
for my $j (0 .. $w - 1) {
push #{ $cell[$i] }, '1';
}
push #{ $cell[$i] }, '0';
}
for my $i (0 .. $w) {
$cell[$h][$i] = '';
}
While in Objective C, there's no 2D array. I'm kind of lost now. What is the equivalent of 2D array in Objective C so that I pretty much can use the same data structure as in Perl?
Thanks.

Answer 1

One way is to use Objective-C style array:
NSMutableArray *cell = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:h];
for (int i=0; i<h; ++i) {
NSMutableArray *row = [NSMutableArray arrayWithCapacity:w];
for (int j=0; j<w; ++j) {
// use a random number
[row addObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:rand()]];
}
// add one row
[cell addObject:row];
}
Another way is just to use C style array:
int **cell = malloc(h*sizeof(int *));
for (int i=0; i<h; ++i) {
cell[i] = malloc(w*sizeof(int));
for (int j=0; j<w; ++j) {
cell[i][j] = rand();
}
}
// after you used it remeber to free it
for (int i=0; i<h; ++i) {
free(cell[i]);
}
free(cell);
cell = NULL;

Answer 2

Use this github library to generate maze.
https://github.com/DoubleEqual/MazeGenerator-tool
The result looks like this for 24x24 maze:

Answer 3

A 2-Dimentional or N-Dimentional arrays are nothing but a way to store the data. If you want a 2-D array its fairly simple, but little bit tricky in obj-c, you have to creates 2nd level arrays, then insert it into first level.
See the code below :
NSMutableArray *twoDArray = [NSMutableArray new]; //this is first level
//below are second level arrays inserted in index 0 to 2.
[twoDArray insertObject:[NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:#"00",#"01",#"02",nil] atIndex:0];
[twoDArray insertObject:[NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:#"10",#"11",#"12",nil] atIndex:1];
[twoDArray insertObject:[NSMutableArray arrayWithObjects:#"20",#"21",#"22",nil] atIndex:2];