Multidimensional arrays are just ... the value you pass in (this responsibility is upon the developer). Thus you can't fill a multidimensional array reasonably well without using a loop. Be aware of the fact that, unlike languages like C or C++, Java arrays are objects and ... More on stackoverflow.com

Putting the brackets after the variable name - the so called C-style array declaration - is an archaic way to declare arrays. It is supported in Java because back in the 90s when the language was created, it was a familiar way for devs to do it (and the ability was never removed to preserve backward compatibility) Nowadays virtually nobody declares arrays this way, and most linting tools/IDEs warn you to avoid it. What's it good for then? To create tricky questions in school tests, of course! More on reddit.com

to hold every position on a chessboard, you'd use a two-dimensional array board[8][8] More on reddit.com

2d arrays concept isn't hard really. Usually, the first loop is iterating over 'objects' inside outer array. Second loop over 'objects' inside inner arrays. In this case, outer loop is actually Y-AXIS, and inner loop X-AXIS (just as a note, because usually people say opposite :D). Example: Iterate over the array and print numbers in increasing order. int[][] arr = {{1, 2, 3, 4}, {5}, {6, 7, 8}, {9, 10}}; So, what do we need to do? As you can see, if we do default iteration over an array it will be sorted without any other manipulations. "I need to iterate over each inner array and each element of an inner array" for (int y = 0; y < arr.length; y++) { for (int x = 0; x < arr[y].length; x++) { System.out.println(arr[y][x]); } } What about this? int[][] arr = { {1, 5, 9}, {2, 6, 10}, {3, 7, 11}, {4, 8, 12} }; Well as you can see, you need to iterate column-wise. Lets see how we can do it. for (int x = 0; x < arr[0].length; x++) { for (int y = 0; y < arr.length; y++) { System.out.println(arr[y][x]); } } Let's actually think about it as X, Y coordinates. We changing Y coordinate, but our X stay the same until the end of the column. Then we change X by 1 (moving to the next column), and do iteration over inner loop again. Note that, the matrix must be rectangular. Good task to do using only one while loop with 2d array: https://hyperskill.org/learn/step/1931 I sumbitted an example with comments, so you can see how to do it and some intuition behind it. Let's see an example of 3d array. int[][][] arr = { {{1, 2, 3, 4}, {}}, {{5, 6, 7, 8, 9}, {10, 11}}, {}, {{12, 13, 14, 15}} }; How to print each element? for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < arr[i].length; j++) { for (int k = 0; k < arr[i][j].length; k++) { System.out.println(arr[i][j][k]); } } } Nothing new, iterate over each element of the most outer array, then iterate over elements of the inner array, and again iterate over elements of the inner array. ps. Wait, did I just said what is already in the theory? lol Just ask something specific then. More on reddit.com