Homework due Test the random number generator Create a 1D array of n ints Fill the array with random numbers between 0 and 100 Compute and report the average of the array contents Do this for n = 10, 100, 1000, 10000,

Homework due Create a 2D array of m x n ints Fill the array with random numbers between 0 and 100 Compute and report the average of the array contents Do this for all combinations of m = {1, 10, 100} and n = {1, 10, 100, 1000}

Homework – special instructions Do not use any hard coded values or constants when calculating loop indices –Use the techniques discussed for computing the number of elements in rows/columns of an array Due Thursday, next class meeting – I’ll look at your results in class

C++ Arrays – Part II

Run time allocation Allocate an array of 20 ints int array[20]; –Allocates an array of 20 elements in main memory at compile time But what if we don’t know how big the array should be when we are compiling the program? –Java has no issues with this since everything is run time allocate

Run time allocation The dreaded “P” word…Pointers! In C++ a pointer is nothing more than a variable that holds an address in memory –Whereas most variables are themselves addresses in memory and hold data It’s often referred to as an indirect address

“Regular” (non-pointer) variables int x = 10; int y = 20; int z = 30; int a[3] = {0}; x y z a[0] a[1] a[2]

Pointer variables int *px; int *py; int *pz; int *pa; px py pz pa ? Notes int* x; is the same as int *x; int* x, y; declares 1 pointer (*x) and 1 non-pointer (y) variable

Pointers – what do you do with them? int *px; int *py; int *pz; int *pa; int x = 10; int y = 20; int z = 30; int a[3] = {0}; px = &x; py = &y; pz = &z; pa = a; x y z a[0] a[1] a[2] x y z a px py pz pa You can use them to refer to (point to) other variables The & is called the “address-of” operator and returns the address of the variable it is operating on Note that the array name is already and address and needs no &

Pointing to other variables *px = 27; *py = 28; *pz = 29; pa[0] = 30; pa[1] = 31; pa[2] = 32; These assignments will change the contents of the variables to whom they point x is now 27 y is now 28 x is now 29 a now holds {30, 31, 32} The * is called the “indirection” operator and refers to the contents of the variable it is operating on Note that the array index operators [ and ] perform a similar task on array type variables

Why? Typically, you won’t use pointers to access individual (primitive) variables You might use pointers to access arrays –At one point in time it used to be faster to do so rather than use indexing – not clear if this is still true –You could use an array of pointers to create a “ragged edged” array (like you can do in Java) The real value of pointers is in dynamic, run time memory allocation

Array access though pointers int a[10] = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { std::cout << a[i] << std::endl; } int *pa = a; for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { std::cout << *pa << std::endl; ++pa; } The tricks –Pointer arithmetic (like ++pa) is smart enough to know how much to add to the pointer (address) to get to the next variable of the appropriate type e.g. if pointing to an int it adds 4, if pointing to a char it adds 1, if pointing to a double it adds 8 Similar for things like pa += 2 (adds 8 for an int, 2 for a char, 16 for a double) –Be sure to initialize the pointer properly –Know how far you can go before overrunning the end of the array

Dynamic memory allocation It’s really quite simple int x = 5; int *pa = new int[x]; for (int i = 0; i < x; ++i) { *(pa + i) = i; } delete [] pa; Note that you have to keep track of the size – sizeof(pa) / sizeof(pa[0]) will not work

What not to do int x = 5; int *pa = new int[x]; for (int i = 0; i < x; ++i) { *pa = i; ++pa; } delete [] pa; Why is this a very, very, very bad thing to do?

To fix it int x = 5; int *pa = new int[x]; for (int i = 0; i < x; ++i) { *(pa + i) = i; } delete [] pa;

Dynamic multi-dimensional arrays Basically, you need to dynamically allocate an array of pointers The method shown in the book is (in my opinion) hooky at best Here’s how I do it…

Dynamic multi-dimensional arrays int rows = 4; int cols = 5; // -- requires a pointer to a pointer int **ma; // -- requires two separate allocations // and some pointer assignments ma = new int*[rows]; ma[0] = new int[rows * cols]; for (int i = 1; i < rows; ++i) { ma[i] = ma[i - 1] + cols; }

Dynamic multi-dimensional arrays // -- now you can access it as a normal 2D array for (int i = 0; i < rows; ++i) { for (int j = 0; j < cols; ++j) { ma[i][j] = i * cols + j; } for (int i = 0; i < rows; ++i) { for (int j = 0; j < cols; ++j) { std::cout << ma[i][j] << "\t"; } std::cout << std::endl; }

Dynamic multi-dimensional arrays // -- you have to delete both allocations in // reverse order delete [] ma[0]; delete [] ma;

Homework Same as the last assignment but this time use dynamically allocated arrays and ask the user how big they should be –i.e. you only need to write and compile 2 programs, 1 for the 1D case and 1 for the 2D case –All the different run sizes will be handled at run time based on user inputs Due next class period