Extracting a 2D matrix from a 3D matrix in c++ - c++

Question

I'm trying to code a function that, given an index as the input argument, extract the corresponding layer from a 3D matrix, returning a 2D matrix.
My default 3D matrix constructor looks something like this:
Matrice3D(unsigned int depth, unsigned int height, unsigned int width, const T &value) : _3D_matrix(0), _height(0), _width(0), _depth(0) {
try {
_3D_matrix = new T[height * width * depth];
for (int z = 0; z < depth; z++) {
for (int y = 0; y < height; y++) {
for (int x = 0; x < width; x++) {
_3D_matrix[y * width * depth + x * depth + z] = value;
}
}
}
}
catch(...) {
delete[] _3D_matrix;
throw;
}
_height = height;
_width = width;
_depth = depth;
}
(the try/catch is still a wip, I know it's not a thing to do).
So far, I've coded this:
void slice(int index) {
try{
_2D_matrix = new T[_height * _width];
}catch(...){
delete[] _2D_matrix;
_height = 0;
_width = 0;
_depth = 0;
throw;
}
_depth = 1;
for (int k = 0; k< _depth; k++) {
for (int j = 0; j< _height; j++) {
for (int i = 0; i< _width; i++) {
_2D_matrix[j * _width + i] =
_3D_matrix[j * _width * _depth + i * _depth + index];
}
}
}
}
I guess the logic behind the assignment done with the nested for cycles is right, but I don't really know how to return the new matrix.
From the main, used to test the code, I'm calling
std::cout << "--------TEST SLICE------------" << std::endl;
Matrice3D<int> m1(3,3,3,17);
std::cout << "Setter su (0,0,2,99)" << std::endl;
m1(0,0,2,91); //setting a value
m1.slice(2);
std::cout << "Matrix obtained from slicing the layer 2: " <<std::endl;
std::cout << m1;
but I keep getting the first layer of the matrix, whatever index I choose for the input.

Answer 1

Create a new class Matrice2D and return that in slice().
The reason why your get total garbage in your code is that you destroy the _depth of the 3D matrix. It's not even the first layer but really just garbage.

Answer 2

The only time new and delete should appear is in classes named something_ptr. You don't need raw pointers here, and you should be returning a 2DMatrix from slice.
template <typename T>
class 2DMatrix;
template <typename T>
class 3DMatrix {
std::vector<T> data;
std::size_t height, width, depth;
public:
3DMatrix(std::size_t height, std::size_t width, std::size_t depth, T value = {})
: data(height * width * depth, value),
height(height),
width(width),
depth(depth)
{}
2DMatrix<T> slice(std::size_t index) {
2DMatrix<T> result(height, width);
for (std::size_t i = index; i < data.size(); i += depth) {
result.data[i / depth] = data[i];
}
return result;
}
// other members
}
template <typename T>
class 2DMatrix {
std::vector<T> data;
std::size_t height, width;
friend class 3DMatrix<T>;
public:
2DMatrix(std::size_t height, std::size_t width, T value = {})
: data(height * width, value),
height(height),
width(width)
{}
// other members
}