You cannot have variables start with a number in Java. I suggest changing your variables accordingly and trying it out.

char[][] array2 = new char [ROWS][COLS];

for (int i = 0; i < array.length(); i++)
{
    array2[i]= array1[i].toCharArray();   
}

for (int row = 0; row < ROWS; row++)
{
    for (int col = 0; col < COLS; col++)
    {
         System.out.print(array2[row][col]);
    }
    System.out.println();
}

A quick answer with thanks to @Kon in the comments: Characters need to have quotes around them. If I execute

char[][] text;
text = new char[20][45];
char text[][] = {{h, i},{ ,b , o ,b}};

Firstly, I would already get the error Duplicate local variable text because you are defining text 2 times: One when you say char[][] text; and the other time when you say char text[][] =. Assuming you fixed that and put the right code, you still have a problem:
YOU DON'T HAVE THE CHARACTERS RIGHT Next time, do this

{{'h', 'i'}, {' ', 'b', 'o', 'b'}}

Instead of

{{h, i}, { , b, o, b}}

Scanner scan=new Scanner(System.in);

char inputArray[][] = new char[rows][cols];

for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++)
{ 
    for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++)
    { 
        inputArray[i][j] = scan.next().charAt(0);
    } 
} 

That seems complicated … but still, this is how:

char[][][][] board = new char[3][3][3][3];

This sounds like a Sudoku board. It'd be much, much easier if you defined a 9x9 2D char array, taking care of iterating over the right zones whenever you have to (simply by controlling the looping variables). Trust me, thinking in terms of a 4D array is gonna be a headache.

If I have understood it correctly - file format is something like

4 4
FILE
WITH
SOME
INFO

Modify as below

    Scanner scanner = new Scanner(inFile);     
    String[] size = scanner.nextLine().split("\\s");         

    char[][] array = new char[Integer.parseInt(size[0])][Integer.parseInt(size[1])];

    for(int i=0; i < rows; i++) {
        array[i] = scanner.nextLine().toCharArray();
    }

Above code is for initialization of you char array. In order to print the same you can do something like

Arrays.deepToString(array);

Consider:

import java.util.Arrays;   

public class Ctest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        char[][] word= { {'a', 'b'}, {'c', 'd'}, {'e', 'f'} };

        println(word); // format with brackets e.g., [[a, b], [c, d]]
        System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(word)); // same format

        for (int i = 0; i < word.length; i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j < word[i].length; j++) {
                if (word[i][j] >= 'a' && word[i][j] <= 'f') {
                    word[i][j] = (char) ((word[i][j] - 'a') + '0');
                }
            }
        }

        println(word); // formatted with brackets
        printPlain(word); // formatted without brackets
    }

    public static void println(char[][] word) {
        System.out.print("[");
        for (int i = 0; i < word.length; i++) {
            if (i > 0) System.out.print(", ");
            System.out.print("[");
            for (int j = 0; j < word[i].length; j++) {
                if (j > 0) System.out.print(", ");
                System.out.print(word[i][j]);
            }
            System.out.print("]");
        }
        System.out.println("]");
    }

    public static void printPlain(char[][] word) {
        for (int i = 0; i < word.length; i++) {
            if (i > 0) System.out.print(", ");
            for (int j = 0; j < word[i].length; j++) {
                if (j > 0) System.out.print(", ");
                System.out.print(word[i][j]);
            }
        }
        System.out.println();
    }
}

The main changes I have made are that the values in the array are actually converted (I'm not sure if you want this; you weren't storing any new values back into the array before), the data is handled as char without being converted to String, the conversion is done with a calculation instead of a special case for each value, and converting the data and printing it have been separated from one another.

There are also a few minor changes. The data is now printed in the format you demonstrated, with brackets, there is no assumption that the inner arrays always have exactly two elements, and the class name has been changed to start with a capital letter.

One other minor note. On the line that converts the values from lower case letters to digits, the expression is in parentheses and is cast back to a char. This is because when you add and subtract chars Java performs a widening conversion to int, so to store the value back into the char[][] it is necessary to cast it to char again.

I had forgotten that there is already a method in Java in the java.util.Arrays class to format a multidimensional array with brackets: Arrays.deepToString(word) will give you the same format as the println method above. I had also shown a printPlain method which is similar, but lacks the brackets, if you prefer a cleaner output format. You could also easily modify this method so that it appends to a StringBuilder and returns a String, instead of printing the array directly.

You need an array of String, not of chars:

public static String[] ToStringArray(int[][] array) {
    String[] ret = new String[array.length]; 

    for (int i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
       ret[i] = "";
       for(int j = 0; j < array[i].length; j++) {
          ret[i] += array[i][j];
       }

    }
    return ret;
}