Pointer to array

Yes, correct. Remember that test *is* a pointer to the table (an array identifier is the address of the first element, i.e. (test == &test[0][0]) is true).

--Rob

const int test[2][2] = { {1,2}, {3,4} };
const int **ptr = (const int **)&test;

David (Axter) is of course right.

Note also that a reference if often syntactically nicer to use than a pointer...

      const INT2X2& ref = test;
      cout << ref[0][0] << endl;
      cout << ref[0][1] << endl;
      cout << ref[1][0] << endl;
      cout << ref[1][1] << endl;

jweston1's C-style cast was wrong:

      const int** ptr2 = (const int**)&test;

The need to cast should have raised alarm bells. It would still have been wrong but more more honest to use C++ casting, which would make you use the quite rightly much more alarming reinterpret_cast<>, which says I-know-better-than-the-compiler-this-type-really-is-a...

The int** type is a pointer to an array of integer pointers, typically used for a pointer to an array of pointers to arrays of int. You'd use this pointer for the following:

      int** ptr2 = new int*[2];
      ptr2[0] = new int[2];
      ptr2[0][0] = 1;
      ptr2[0][1] = 2;
      ptr2[1] = new int[2];
      ptr2[1][0] = 3;
      ptr2[1][1] = 4;
      cout << ptr2[0][0] << endl;
      cout << ptr2[0][1] << endl;
      cout << ptr2[1][0] << endl;
      cout << ptr2[1][1] << endl;
      delete[] ptr2[1];
      delete[] ptr2[1];
      delete[] ptr2;

Axter solution works like a charm. But rstaveley, yours give this errors:
---
error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'const int (*)[2]' to 'const int (&)[2][2]'
Reason: cannot convert from 'const int (*)[2]' to 'const int [2][2]'
There are no conversions to array types, although there are conversions to references or pointers to arrays
---

This compiles like a charm in both DevCPP and Visual C++.

But what I am trying to do is this:

------
#include <iostream>
#include <time.h>
using std::cout;using std::endl;

typedef int INT2X2[2][2];

const INT2X2 test = { {1,2}, {3,4} };
const INT2X2 test2 = { {1,2}, {3,4} };

int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
     srand(time(NULL));
     bool bChooseIt = rand()%2 ? true : false;

     const INT2X2& ref = bChooseIt ? test : test2;
     cout << ref[0][0] << endl;

     return 0;
}
--------

And this gives me the errors... Assignment works like a charm, but this give these errors:
D:\tmp\tmp\main.cpp(21) : error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'const int (*)[2]' to 'const int (&)[2][2]'
        Reason: cannot convert from 'const int (*)[2]' to 'const int [2][2]'
        There are no conversions to array types, although there are conversions to references or pointers to arrays

Works like a charm in MingW though, but how can I circumvent that problem? Via pointers yes, but otherwise?

Ok, found the solution myself, VisualC == stupid:

const INT2X2& ref = *(bChooseIt ? &test : &test2);

thanks all!

Yes that wouldn't have worked because the construct needs a temporary object, which would mean reassigning the reference, which you can't do.

There are ways around this.

e.g.
--------8<--------
#include <iostream>
#include <time.h>
using std::cout;using std::endl;

typedef int INT2X2[2][2];

const INT2X2 test = { {1,2}, {3,4} };
const INT2X2 test2 = { {5,6}, {7,8} };

template<typename T>
inline T& chooser(T& true_opt,T& false_opt,bool choice)
{
      if (choice)
            return true_opt;
      else
            return false_opt;
}

int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
     srand(time(0));
     bool bChooseIt = rand()%2 ? true : false;

     const INT2X2& ref = chooser(test,test2,bChooseIt);
     cout << ref[0][0] << endl;

     return 0;
}
--------8<--------

Interestingly enough T1 (the technical report - which is going-to-be-not-quite-standard) has a wrapper for references to handle some of this clumsiness.