Changing size of arrays in C++

[Blaqb0x]

Hi,

This question has plagued me for some time now.

In C++, is there a way to change the size of an array, add to the end of one, subtract an element from one(shorten by an index)?

In perl you use, pop, splice,push

What happens when you don't know how much storage to set aside?

Do you just keep track of how many elements you store then if it over runs the array you write them to file and re-initialize. That sounds too complicated and slow.

Thanx,

[Killer_Penguin]

Hi,

This question has plagued me for some time now.

In C++, is there a way to change the size of an array, add to the end of one, subtract an element from one(shorten by an index)?

In perl you use, pop, splice,push

What happens when you don't know how much storage to set aside?

Do you just keep track of how many elements you store then if it over runs the array you write them to file and re-initialize. That sounds too complicated and slow.

Thanx,

Actually, arrays don't really have this functionality. For something like this, I would suggest a vector. Vectors are like a dynamic array of any size, of a given object.

In a app I'm working on, I've got a vector of network profiles. Each new profile gets added to the vector, and I have a member of the profile as a search key, like profile number or something like that. This way, I don't have to know the exact position of each object, just iterate for the number. Now, if done right, the number should match the position in the vector.

[Blaqb0x]

could you please give me an example?

thanx,

[ghostdog]

You could use any of the containers in the STL(vector,list...).
Check out:
http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/

The introduction has examples of usage of vector.

Cheers,
T.

[redhead]

What happens when you don't know how much storage to set aside? *

Do you just keep track of how many elements you store then if it over runs the array you write them to file and re-initialize. That sounds too complicated and slow.

Well in C I would do it like:

typedef (what ever) Item;
Item* ItemList;
int numItems = 0;
int maxItems = 0;

int addItem (Item item) {
 *if (numItems >= maxItems -1) {
 * *maxItems += 10;
 * *ItemList = (Item*)realloc (ItemList, maxItem * sizeof (Item));
 * *if (!ItemList) * 
 * * *return -1;
 *}
 *ItemList[numItems] = item;
 *numItems++;
 *return 0;
}

But since this is C++ I would use the <vector> facility of STL, then you have your pop/push functions like:

vector <what ever> my_vector_array;
my_vector_array.push(new_item);