How can I create a two dimensional array in JavaScript?

You simply make each item within the array an array.

var x = new Array(10);
for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  x[i] = new Array(20);
}
x[5][12] = 3.0;

Similar to activa's answer, here's a function to create an n-dimensional array:

function createArray(length) {
    var arr = new Array(length || 0),
        i = length;

    if (arguments.length > 1) {
        var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1);
        while(i--) arr[length-1 - i] = createArray.apply(this, args);
    }

    return arr;
}

createArray();     // [] or new Array()

createArray(2);    // new Array(2)

createArray(3, 2); // [new Array(2),
                   //  new Array(2),
                   //  new Array(2)]

The reason some say that it isn't possible is because a two dimensional array is really just an array of arrays. The other comments here provide perfectly valid methods of creating two dimensional arrays in JavaScript, but the purest point of view would be that you have a one dimensional array of objects, each of those objects would be a one dimensional array consisting of two elements.

So, that's the cause of the conflicting view points.

Javascript only has 1-dimensional arrays, but you can build arrays of arrays, as others pointed out.

The following function can be used to construct a 2-d array of fixed dimensions:

function Create2DArray(rows) {
  var arr = [];

  for (var i=0;i<rows;i++) {
     arr[i] = [];
  }

  return arr;
}

The number of columns is not really important, because it is not required to specify the size of an array before using it.

Then you can just call:

var arr = Create2DArray(100);

arr[50][2] = 5;
arr[70][5] = 7454;
// ...

The easiest way:

var myArray = [[]];

Few people show the use of push:
To bring something new, I will show you how to initialize the matrix with some value, example: 0 or an empty string "".
Reminding that if you have a 10 elements array, in javascript the last index will be 9!

function matrix( rows, cols, defaultValue){

  var arr = [];

  // Creates all lines:
  for(var i=0; i < rows; i++){

      // Creates an empty line
      arr.push([]);

      // Adds cols to the empty line:
      arr[i].push( new Array(cols));

      for(var j=0; j < cols; j++){
        // Initializes:
        arr[i][j] = defaultValue;
      }
  }

return arr;
}

usage examples:

x = matrix( 2 , 3,''); // 2 lines, 3 cols filled with empty string
y = matrix( 10, 5, 0);// 10 lines, 5 cols filled with 0

Two dimensional arrays are created the same way single dimensional arrays are. And you access them like array[0][1].

var arr = [1, 2, [3, 4], 5];

alert (arr[2][1]); //alerts "4"

I'm not sure if anyone has answered this but I found this worked for me pretty well -

var array = [[,],[,]]

eg:

var a = [[1,2],[3,4]]

For a 2 dimensional array, for instance.

Two-liner:

var a = []; 
while(a.push([]) < 10);

It will generate an array a of the length 10, filled with arrays. (Push adds an element to an array and returns the new length)

To create a 2D array in javaScript we can create an Array first and then add Arrays as it's elements. This method will return a 2D array with the given number of rows and columns.

function Create2DArray(rows,columns) {
   var x = new Array(rows);
   for (var i = 0; i < rows; i++) {
       x[i] = new Array(columns);
   }
   return x;
}

to create an Array use this method as below.

var array = Create2DArray(10,20);

The easiest way:

var arr  = [];

var arr1 = ['00','01'];
var arr2 = ['10','11'];
var arr3 = ['20','21'];

arr.push(arr1);
arr.push(arr2);
arr.push(arr3);

alert(arr[0][1]); // '01'
alert(arr[1][1]); // '11'
alert(arr[2][0]); // '20'

I found below is the simplest way:

var array1 = [[]];   
array1[0][100] = 5; 

alert(array1[0][100]);
alert(array1.length);
alert(array1[0].length);

I had to make a flexible array function to add "records" to it as i needed and to be able to update them and do whatever calculations e needed before i sent it to a database for further processing. Here's the code, hope it helps :).

function Add2List(clmn1, clmn2, clmn3) {
    aColumns.push(clmn1,clmn2,clmn3); // Creates array with "record"
    aLine.splice(aPos, 0,aColumns);  // Inserts new "record" at position aPos in main array
    aColumns = [];    // Resets temporary array
    aPos++ // Increments position not to overlap previous "records"
}

Feel free to optimize and / or point out any bugs :)

You could allocate an array of rows, where each row is an array of the same length. Or you could allocate a one-dimensional array with rows*columns elements and define methods to map row/column coordinates to element indices.

Whichever implementation you pick, if you wrap it in an object you can define the accessor methods in a prototype to make the API easy to use.

I've made a modification of Matthew Crumley's answer for creating a multidimensional array function. I've added the dimensions of the array to be passed as array variable and there will be another variable - value, which will be used to set the values of the elements of the last arrays in the multidimensional array.

/*
*   Function to create an n-dimensional array
*
*   @param array dimensions
*   @param any type value
*
*   @return array array
 */
function createArray(dimensions, value) {
    // Create new array
    var array = new Array(dimensions[0] || 0);
    var i = dimensions[0];

    // If dimensions array's length is bigger than 1
    // we start creating arrays in the array elements with recursions
    // to achieve multidimensional array
    if (dimensions.length > 1) {
        // Remove the first value from the array
        var args = Array.prototype.slice.call(dimensions, 1);
        // For each index in the created array create a new array with recursion
        while(i--) {
            array[dimensions[0]-1 - i] = createArray(args, value);
        }
    // If there is only one element left in the dimensions array
    // assign value to each of the new array's elements if value is set as param
    } else {
        if (typeof value !== 'undefined') {
            while(i--) {
                array[dimensions[0]-1 - i] = value;
            }
        }
    }

    return array;
}

createArray([]);              // [] or new Array()

createArray([2], 'empty');    // ['empty', 'empty']

createArray([3, 2], 0);       // [[0, 0],
                              //  [0, 0],
                              //  [0, 0]]

If you are after 2D array for google charts, the best way to do it is

var finalData = [];
[["key",value], ["2013-8-5", 13.5], ["2013-7-29",19.7]...]

referring to Not a valid 2d array google chart

var _field = (function()
{
    var array = [];
    for(var y = 0; y != 3; y++) { array[y] = new Array(5); }
    return array;
})();

// var item = _field[2][4];

What happens if the size of array is unknown? Or array should be dynamically created and populated? Alternative solution which worked for me is to use class with static 2d array variable which in case of non-existence of index in array will initiate it:

function _a(x,y,val){
    // return depending on parameters
    switch(arguments.length){
        case 0: return _a.a;
        case 1: return _a.a[x];
        case 2: return _a.a[x][y];
    }

    // declare array if wasn't declared yet
    if(typeof _a.a[x] == 'undefined')
        _a.a[x] = [];

    _a.a[x][y] = val;
}
// declare static empty variable
_a.a = [];

The syntax will be:

_a(1,1,2); // populates [1][1] with value 2
_a(1,1);   // 2 or alternative syntax _a.a[1][1]
_a(1);     // [undefined × 1, 2]
_a.a;      // [undefined × 1, Array[2]]
_a.a.length

I found that this code works for me:

var map = [
    []
];

mapWidth = 50;
mapHeight = 50;
fillEmptyMap(map, mapWidth, mapHeight);

...

function fillEmptyMap(array, width, height) {
    for (var x = 0; x < width; x++) {
        array[x] = [];
        for (var y = 0; y < height; y++) {

            array[x][y] = [0];
        }
    }
}

Recursive function to create a multi-dimensional array:

var makeArray = function (dims, arr) {          
    if (dims[1] === undefined) {
        return new Array(dims[0]);
    }

    arr = new Array(dims[0]);

    for (var i=0; i<dims[0]; i++) {
        arr[i] = new Array(dims[1]);
        arr[i] = makeArray(dims.slice(1), arr[i]);
    }

    return arr;
}

Build a 2x3x4x2 4D-Array:

var array = makeArray([2, 3, 4, 2]);    

Javascript does not support two dimensional arrays, instead we store an array inside another array and fetch the data from that array depending on what position of that array you want to access. Remember array numeration starts at ZERO.

Code Example:

/* Two dimensional array that's 5 x 5 

       C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 
    R0[1][1][1][1][1] 
    R1[1][1][1][1][1] 
    R2[1][1][1][1][1] 
    R3[1][1][1][1][1] 
    R4[1][1][1][1][1] 
*/

var row0 = [1,1,1,1,1],
    row1 = [1,1,1,1,1],
    row2 = [1,1,1,1,1],
    row3 = [1,1,1,1,1],
    row4 = [1,1,1,1,1];

var table = [row0,row1,row2,row3,row4];
console.log(table[0][0]); // Get the first item in the array