I am learning C with experiencein mostly Python, R and SQL.
The way arrays (and vectors which differes somehow from 1d-arrays? and matrices which are 2d-arrays?) work in C seems quite different as I cannot specify the size of dimension of the array with an argument from the function.
A toy-example of my goal is some thing like this:
Have a function my_2d_array which takes two arguments M and N and returns a matrix or 2d-array of dimension (MxN) with elements indicating the position of that element. E.g. calling my_2d_array(4,3) would return:
[[00, 01, 02],
[10, 11, 12],
[20, 21, 22],
[30, 31, 32]]The main function should execute my_2d_array and be able to potentially perform calculations with the result or modify it.
This is my attempt (with errors):
int my_2d_array(int N, int M) {
int A[N][M];
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ) {
for (int j = 0; j < M; j ) {
std::string element = std::to_string(i) std::to_string(j);
A[i][j] = element;
}
}
return A;
}
void main() {
int N, M;
N = 4;
M = 3;
int A[N][M] = my_2d_array(N, M);
// Print the array A
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ) {
for (int j = 0; j < M; j ) {
std::cout << A[i][j] << " ";
}
std::cout << "\n";
}
}
One (1) dimensional attempt of @JustLearning's suggestion:
int my_array(int N) {
std::array<int, N> A;
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ) {
A[i] = i;
}
return A;
}
int main() {
int N = 4;
int A[N] = my_array(N);
// Print the array A
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ) {
std::cout << A[i] << " ";
}
}
CodePudding user response：
You can use a 2d vector like this
vector<vector int> A;
It works the same way as a 2d array
CodePudding user response：
Welcome to C ! Your function my_2d_array has a couple of issues:
- the return type is
int, however you are attempting to return an array ofints. - the identifier of an array in C is actually a pointer to the first element of that array. Therefore, when you return
A, you must be aware of how it should be passed to a new variable in themainpart of the code. In particular, your code is passing a reference to a temporary variableA, which is not permitted or safe.
In addition, in C , unless you know what you're doing, main should always return an int:
int main() { ... }
What is not clear from your question is whether you are attempting to implement your own "array" class, or simply want to use arrays already established in the standard. For the latter, std::array is a good place to start. The advantage is that you can return std::arrays from functions like you return ints or doubles.
std::arrays are good if you plan to work with arrays of fixed size, as the size becomes part of the type: std::array<int, 3> my_array;. Then you can fill it in manually or with member functions of the class (see dox linked above).
If for some reason you prefer to work with arrays of dynamical size (sizes that will change during running your program), std::vector is the way to go.
Finally, if you are actually learning C by attempting to implement a container MyArray, you should specify that in your question and be a bit more specific in what help you need.
Here's a working example in 1d:
#include <iostream>
#include <array>
template <int N>
std::array<int, N> my_array() {
std::array<int, N> A;
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ) {
A[i] = i;
}
return A;
}
int main() {
const int N = 4;
std::array<int, N> arr = my_array<N>();
// Print the array A
for (int i = 0; i < N; i ) {
std::cout << arr[i] << " ";
}
}
Since the size of a std::array is included it its type, you need to create a function template, which is basically a function that works for different types. (In C , std::array<int, 3> and std::array<int, 4> are considered different types.)
In order to use this in main, the index is promoted to a const int, as plain ints can vary during run time, and therefore are not suitable for defining types. (In C jargon, look up constant expressions).
Finally, note that both the return type and the type of the variable that receives the value returned by the function must be std::array, not int as you tried in your 1d code.