When diffraction by arbitrary two-dimensional surface-relief dielectric gratings is analyzed using the rigorous three-dimensional vector coupled-wave analysis, it is found that the matrix eigenvalue problem pertaining to the analysis can always be simplified to that for a matrix which has the dimension of a quarter of the original, so that computing time and memory requirements for computer may be greatly reduced. However this kind of simplification can not be obtained in the case of volume diffraction gratings. tings.