array a = array::make(1)(2)(3)(5)(10);   // initialize an array
array b = array::sequence(2,0,10.01);    // create an array with stepsize 2, from 0 to 10
array c = split("first second third");   // initialize an array by splitting a string

a[1] = 100;              // indexing works like in C/C++ (0-based)

for(a.setfirst(); a; ++a)   // loop over an array: it has its own iterator
{
    cout<<a()<<endl;     // use the () operator to access the current element
}

• Initialization
• Creating a sequence
• Iterating over an array
• Sorting

Initialization

I more and more frequently face the liminations of C++ as a scripting language, and wish I would have written this software in perl for example. One example is the lack of arbitrary-length array initialization. In order to overcome this problem, the following method is implemented: an arbitrary-length array can be created by appending the elements in () parentheses after array::make:

array a = array::make(1)(3)(6);

The return value of such a statement is an array consisting of the listed elements. Be careful, however, because at every call of the above statement the same (static) array is returned, so don't use 2 or more such statements as different arguments of a function, for example the following is bad:

some_func(array::make(1)(2), array::make(4)(5)(6));

See the implementation details.

Another way to create an array is splitting a string:

void f(var &v)
{
  array a;
  split(v,a);
  // ... do whatever
}

f("one two three");

Creating a sequence:

An array with an equal stepsize within a range can be created like this:

array a = array::sequence(stepsize, from, to); 

The array will start from 'from' (no surprise), and will stop at 'to', inclusive. Be aware of floating point problems, for example

double from = 1.342;
double to   = 3.2543;
array::sequence((to-from)/7, from, to);

may or may not finally contain to. The safest is to add a small number (a fraction of the stepsize) to 'to'.

Iteration:

The following method is provided to easily iterate over an array: an array has a built-in, own iterator, which stores the current position in the array. The current element can be accessed by the () operator, the iterator can be incremented or decremented by the ++ or -- operators, the validity of the iterator position (within range) can be tested with the 'bool' conversion.

setfirst(), setlast(), set(int i)

Set the iterator to the first, last, or ith element

operator bool

Test validity (in-range) of the iterator

var &operator()()

Access the current element

operator++, operator--

Increment/decrement iterator

Example:

for(array a=split("2 4 6 8"); a; ++a)
{
  cerr<<a()<<endl;
}

Sorting

Use the sort_n() or sort_s() member functions to sort an array as numbers or strings

One can replace occurences of a string to another string in all elements of an array by using the replace member function:

array a = split("filename1.dat filename2.dat filename3.dat");
a.replace(".dat",".eps");

   array.h
   array.cc

array::make(var)

array::make(1)(2)