It seems like any time you need to use them it would be easier to just make a class. Are they actually used in real programs or are they just taught for the sake of knowledge?

I personally never use them. I just use a list of lists. Arrays save on memory, but unless you're very limited on hardware, I don't think they're really necessary because lists are easier to deal with and just as fast as arrays.

Lists are very cache-unfriendly and should be avoided unless you have reason (benchmarks) to use them. Your go-to container should be vector, it's implemented as a contiguous array of elements of your type and has a very nice and flexible interface on top of it.

this

So a vector of classes > milti-dimensional array?

unless you know the size of the array beforehand and that it will never change, vectors are better

yeah, was going to just type that vectors are dynamic and arrays are fixed. but a link as to why just seem to be a better fit.
nn to reinvent the wheel when the answer is already present

im not sure what language you're using. in general you want something backed by an array as opposed to multidimensional arrays. from previous posters, i assume "list" refers to linked list and "vector" is just a convenience wrapper around an array, in which case vectors would be the way to go.

Yeah, I assumed C++ where vector is a dynamic array and list is a doubly linked list.