Multi_dimensional arrays

Moronicmisfit · August 3, 2026, 11:43am

ok, wondering if there was anyway at all to allow Godot to build multi-dimensional Arrays in a future build? I know how to use GDscript code to create one, but would be nice if it was built in.

thanks for your time.

japonbaligi · August 3, 2026, 11:49am

You can already nest arrays ( Array[Array], or just [[1, 2], [3, 4]]). There’s no separate multi-dim array type though, and nested typed arrays like Array[Array[int]] aren’t supported yet as far as i know.

pauldrewett · August 3, 2026, 9:34pm

I think I agree with you @Moronicmisfit, it would be nice if it was built in. Not sure how much use it would get but it would get some.

var my_3d_array: Array[x:int][y:int][z:int]

longplay_games · August 3, 2026, 11:00pm

I effectively implement that when I need to via dictionary or nested array, though coming from a C background I too would like to see something like that.

rainerdeyke · August 4, 2026, 9:46am

You can write your own stride-based multidimensional array type. In the long term, that would be the best approach. Some significant up-front effort, but you get an actual multidimensional array, not a cheap imitation.

Failing that, an array of arrays or a dictionary with vectors as keys would also work.

pauldrewett · August 5, 2026, 10:12pm

They know how to do it, they were suggesting it would be nice if it was built in so memory blocks for them were contigous.

I think this was a valid comment. If anyone posts this in Godot GDScript suggestions I will support it.

sancho2 · August 6, 2026, 3:09am

If by extension, you would use it so:
my_3d_array[0][0][0] = 12
Then this format would be a major breaking change since currently this is valid syntax.

	var my_3d_array:Array = [[1,2,[3,4]]]
	print(my_3d_array[0][2][0])

So you would need to find another syntax for it.
It is probably better to have separate variable type for it.

rainerdeyke · August 6, 2026, 6:59am

My preferred syntax for multidimensional array access is to use a vector type:

var a: Array3D[int] = function_that_creates_3d_array()
var idx: = Vector3i(0, 0, 0)
a[idx] = 5

japonbaligi · August 6, 2026, 2:04pm

There’s already stuff to here:

github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals

Add support for multidimensional Arrays

opened 03:34PM - 05 Jan 23 UTC

vpellen

topic:core

### Describe the project you are working on This is applicable to almost every …project I have ever embarked on. Particularly relevant for procedural generation and grid-based games. ### Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project Trying to deal with large multidimensional datasets is exceptionally tedious. One has to either sacrifice efficiency (by having arrays of arrays or using a dictionary) or readability (by having a 1D array and indexing it manually). ### Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation Multidimensional arrays would improve overall readability and possibly performance when dealing with large multidimensional datasets. ### Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams The most critical question is how many types there should be and how they should be named and arranged. I imagine the most trivial solution would be to add a series of new fixed-dimension types such as `Array2D`, `Array3D`, `PackedByteArray4D`, and so on. The main concern for such types is what the upper limit would be - 4 dimensions is probably a healthy practical limit (so you can have an extra level of dimensionality for ostensibly 3D datasets). The alternative is to give each array a "dimension count" property. This would facilitate higher levels of dimensionality, but might make things needlessly complex, especially in terms of indexing. Perhaps a `MultiArray` class could serve to be a unique type distinct from the base 1-dimensional array types, but you'd still face the issues of indexing and complexity. For indexing style, CSV within brackets (`arr[y, x]`) is likely optimal; Sequential brackets (`arr[y][x]`) can cause some ambiguity in cases with nested containers. For resizing, the internal structure of these arrays is likely to be a simple array of consecutive values, so a resize that preserved the original array's contents would be slow by design, but in my experience large multidimensional datasets tend to remain fairly fixed. ### If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script? Multidimensional arrays are a frequent occurrence, and while manual indexing of a 1D array can be done via fairly trivial multiplication, it can quickly make things cluttered, especially when you want to index based on an expression rather than a single value. ### Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library? Multidimensional arrays are used frequently enough to warrant being a part of core. Also, come to think of it, I'm not sure GDScript actually has support for CSV indexers.

github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals

Add a 2D array/grid/matrix type to GDScript

opened 04:58PM - 11 Aug 22 UTC

barbaros83

topic:gdscript

### Describe the project you are working on 2D game with destructible blocks … ### Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project 2D arrays in godot is doable, but unintuitive, and have slow performance. Before i decided to write this proposal i googled it and saw that many people struggled with this. The fact that you have to create an array and add an array each iteration is awkward, and since this type of data structure is used often in games i think a proposal for this is in order. ### Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation Im not set on 1 way of doing this because there are multiple ways of approaching this, either make it easier to define a 2 dimensional array or have a new data type, like matrix or grid or something that represents a 2 dimensional data structure. ### Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams in code it would look something like this: var grid: Grid = Grid(20, 20) ### If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script? it will be used often, and it can be worked around easily with gdscript, but it would be more performant if its part of godot itself ### Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library? its used in a lot of games, its a data structure that is especially useful for most 2d games

baba · August 6, 2026, 3:32pm

Just out of curiosity: what would you use it for?

pauldrewett · August 6, 2026, 6:08pm

For myself I am doing a procedurally generated simulated environment in my 2D game. I might use them to store my x-component (where we are in the world), the thorn density, the mood, the light levels, the creature generation, the plant generation… anything and everything really. With a multi dimensional array I could do [chunk_position, magical intensity, corruption] but more importantly it would be easily reversible.

When I tried to do a 3D game of life, it would have been great for that too.

Yes, I am managing fine without it. But like the OP said, it would be nice if it was built in.

How handy would that be. My creature procedural generation would be a cinch with this especially varying it with time of day.

@japonbaligi
Thanks for those links. Support given!

Moronicmisfit · August 8, 2026, 1:13pm

to BABA, for everything that involves x , y and or z arrays. as in a table of X,Y,Z positions for 3D. lots of other uses for multi-dimensional arrays. most high level programming languages have multi-dimensional arrays. And its makes programming life better. Been programming since the mid 80s, used these kind of arrays a lot. and yes as stated, I can create my own , in code, by nesting arrays with-in arrays. but its a pain and be better if it were built-in . Thanks for your time. and happy coding.

baba · August 8, 2026, 1:54pm

Thanks for your replies both of you! Lets hope they have added them until i start a 3d project sometime in future

neuneutrinos · August 8, 2026, 8:30pm

Another possibility is to make multidimensional array into one.

a b c d
e f g h
i j k l

a b c d e f g h i j k l

If I have a knowledge for the dimension of my 2d array (here width = 4 height = 3)
I can get coord from an index and an index from coord.

func get_index_from_coord(coord:Vector2I):
  return coord.x+dimension.x*coord.y

here g is (2,1) : computation … 2 +4*1 = 6
coord (2,1) is the 6th slot of my array.