How to print a two dimensional array in cocos2dx - c++

Question

I have a two-dimensional array that I want to print to the output of visual studio to see the result each time I modify that, I tried using std::cout and it does not work, if I use CCLOG the function will automatically write a newline each time it's called that and it's not a two-dimensional array pretty solution, I also tried CClog not sure what's the difference with CCLOG but this time it even give a compiling error :(
like I want the output be:
1,2,4,4,5
5,5,4,3,0
4,4,4,4,7
6,6,6,6,6
Here is what I tried:
void HelloWorld::PrintBrickArray() {
CCLOG("will print brick array");
std::cout << "===Begin of Array ====" << std::endl;
for (int i = 0; i < MATRIX_Y; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < MATRIX_X; j++) {
//CCLog("%d", this->brickArray[i][j]);
std::cout << this->brickArray[i][j] << ' ';
}
std::cout << std::endl;
}
std::cout << "*****END OF Array *****" << std::endl;
std::cout.flush();
}
How to do that with coco2dx?

Answer 1

CCLOG or cocos2d::log uses the Visual Studio's Debug windows, which is different to write to console where std::cout works.
Therefore, there are two ways to get rid of your problem: writing to console using std::cout or writing to output windows using different methods than CCLOG
First choice, you have to change your project type from Win32 Application Project to Win32 Console Project. This is kind of going around with Visual Studio stuffs, and in most cases, your project is created automatically via cocos2d's console. You can see this post. I'm not recommend this way IMO.
Second choice, use your own code to write to output which discussed here.
There is another way that you can use std::string and std::ostringstream to "print" your variables to buffer, and then just print your string to output windows via CCLOG
CCLOG is a little bit wrapping the code to make it convenience where we log resources checking, errors, file processing, etc which usually occur when run time. If not in those cases, you should probably set break points to view what the values are instead.
Edited: Since you chose the second approach, I would recommend using std::ostringstream than sprintf, and using CCLog instead of OutputDebugString (because you just print it out and independent OS, no need extra arguments)
Here is an example code:
#include <vector>
#include <sstream> // for ostringstream
#include <Windows.h> // for OutputDebugStringA
using namespace std;
int main(void)
{
// Assuming that you have this 2d array
vector< vector<int> > arr2d;
arr2d.push_back({ 2,2,1,4 });
arr2d.push_back({ 2,4,1,5 });
arr2d.push_back({ 2,4,7,2 });
arr2d.push_back({ 3,2,0,1 });
ostringstream buffer;
for (int i = 0; i < arr2d.size(); i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < arr2d[i].size(); j++)
{
buffer << arr2d[i][j] << '\t';
}
buffer << endl;
}
// Assuming that you use OutputDebugString for windows-only
//OutputDebugStringA(buffer.str().c_str());
// I recommend this
cocos2d::log(buffer.str().c_str());
return 0;
}
Now, buffer works nearly the same as cout, it just "print" to buffer instead, then you can get one using str(). But cocos2d::log use C-style string, so c_str() will get rid of the problem
See more about std::ostringstream here