#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
int main()
{
unsigned int numVec;
unsigned int input;
std::cout << "Enter Number of Vectors: ";
std::cin >> numVec;
std::vector<int>* Vec;
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < numVec; i++)
{
std::cout << "Enter Vector Value " << i << ": ";
std::cin >> input;
Vec->push_back(input);
}
std::cout << std::endl;
for (unsigned int i = 0; i < Vec->size(); i++)
{
std::cout << "Value at Index (" << i << ") " << Vec->at(i) << std::endl;
}
std::cout << std::endl;
return 0;
}
I am trying to learn how Vectors work as it is a topic that i have withheld learning for a very long time for no apparently reason.
My above code will compile and run however once i put in a number to store in the Vector it will crash.
The program did work before when i was just using a vector without the pointer but just for learning reasons i wanted to try it with a pointer, I am just wondering what am i doing wrong with this code and if someone could possibly flame me for doing something or give me some good advice on what i am doing wrong in this situation so i can learn for future reference.
Replace
std::vector<int>* Vec;
with
std::vector<int> vec;
and replace the pointer to member operator -> with the member selection operator ..
Only on rare occasions do you need to use dynamic storage for a std::vector instance, as that class does an excellent job of managing the memory for you. Currently you are not allocating any memory for your vector, and the behaviour of your code is undefined.
If you must use a pointer then write
std::vector<int>* vec = new std::vector();
and don't forget to call delete vec; when you're done. Consider using std::unique_ptr &c. so the delete is taken care of automatically.
My above code will compile and run however once i put in a number to store in the Vector it will crash.
What vector?
You never created a vector.
You only created a pointer, one which (a) is uninitialised, and (b) does not point to anything, let alone a (c) vector.
Related
I have the following main program that creates a Stack object, fills it with integers and then pops them. The code files fine, but the pop_back() part does not seem to work, even after pop_back() it prints all values. How is this possible?
#include<iostream>
#include<vector>
using namespace std;
int main(){
vector<int> myVector; //initalization
int value;
//input in a vector using push_back
for (int i = 0; i < 6;i++){
cin >> value;
myVector.push_back(value);
}
cout<<"Initial vector size:" << myVector.size() <<endl;
for (int i = 0; i < 6;i++){
cout << myVector[i];
}
cout << endl;
myVector.pop_back();
cout<<"Vector size after pop back: " << myVector.size() << endl;
cout << endl;
cout << "First element is: " << myVector.front() << endl;
cout << "Last element is : " << myVector.back() << endl;
for (int i = 0; i < 6;i++){
cout << myVector[i];
}
return 0;
}
Everyone has focused on saying this is undefined behavior fix code, but question was why it works.
To understand why it works you must understand how vector works more or less.
Vector allocates some block of memory to store items.
size of this block is defined by capacity, which says how many items can be stored in vector, without allocating new block of memory
capacity is usually bigger then size of the vector
now when you remove items form vector, capacity and allocated block of memory doesn't change. This is an optimization.
when you remove item from back just destructor is called (for int it does nothing) and size of vector is reduced.
your value is not cleared just marked as out of vector size
so when you use operator[] it doesn't check if you exceed its size. It just returns value at specific adders
since pop_back just reduced size you value is still there
Note if you call shrink_to_fit after pop_back there is a great chance it will and with crash or you will not receive same value. Still this is undefined behavior and anything can happen.
Another way to see your code is bad is to use at which checks if index is in valid range.
std::vector::pop_back function works just fine. After you perform a call to it, you try to print all 6 values instead of 5. Therefore, you are accessing invalid memory. In your case, program prints out the value that was removed but in some other case it could print some garbage value. That's why this is UB - Undefined Behavior.
Try the following and you will see that last element is not in the std::vector:
for (int i = 0; i < myVector.size(); i++) {
std::cout << myVector[i];
}
or, even better, use range-based for loop:
for (auto const i : myVector) {
std::cout << i;
}
The problem is in the way you loop through the vector - you are expecting it to have 6 elements even after you have removed the last element. This is undefined behavior.
Using a range based for would be preferred in both cases where you want to output the contents of the vector:
for (auto i:myVector) {
cout << i;
}
While performing a practice assignment online I came across a problem which I am not able to solve.
The user has to a number(number of sentences he will be entering) and then proceed to enter the sentences one by one, which are to be stored as strings(by the way, declaring a dynamic array of pointers is mandatory). However, since the number of sentences is not a priori deducible, I know that the size of the array of pointers actually is the number of sentences but I can't figure out how to declare a dynamic array of pointers to strings.
Using something I had already known beforehand, I figured out how to do the same but with arrays of characters, not arrays of strings. The line that declared a dynamic array of pointers to dynamic arrays of chars looked like this:
char **ptr=new char*[n] {};
So with my understanding, this creates a pointer ptr which points to a dynamic array of pointers, the elements of which each point to one array of characters. I want to do something similar now, where the result should be that ptr is a pointer to a dynamic array of pointers, the elements of which each point to a string.
Can anyone help out? I'd be thankful!
I think what you are looking for is something like
std::size_t num;
std::cout << "enter the number of sentences\n";
std::cin >> num;
std::string *sentences = new std::string[num];
for(std::size_t i=0; i!=num; ++i) {
std::cout << "enter the " << (i+1) << "th sentence\n";
std::cin >> sentences[i];
}
/*
... (do something with the sentences, accessing them as sentences[i])
*/
delete[] sentences; // free the memory
Note that this style of coding is highly discouraged. The problem is the need to manage the allocated memory: avoid memory leaks and dangling pointers (including exception safety). The correct approach is to use a container or smart pointer. For example:
std::size_t num;
std::cout << "enter the number of sentences\n";
std::cin >> num;
std::vector<std::string> sentences{num};
for(std::size_t i=0; i!=num; ++i) {
std::cout << "enter the " << (i+1) << "th sentence\n";
std::cin >> sentences[i];
}
/*
... (do something with the sentences, accessing them as sentences[i])
*/
or
std::size_t num;
std::cout << "enter the number of sentences\n";
std::cin >> num;
std::unique_ptr<std::string[]> sentences{new std::string[num]};
for(std::size_t i=0; i!=num; ++i) {
std::cout << "enter the " << (i+1) << "th sentence\n";
std::cin >> sentences[i];
}
/*
... (do something with the sentences, accessing them as sentences[i])
*/
when in both cases you don't have to worry about calling delete: the allocated memory will be automatically deleted (even if an exception occurs).
You can avoid pointers completely and use
std::vector<std::string> input;
A std::array needs to know the size at compile time, and you learn this at runtime. The vector works like an array but can have items push_backed at runtime.
You could declare pointer to some strings, using n once you know it:
std::string * pInputs = new std::string[n];
but it's easier to use the vector.
Each pInput will be a string, as with the std::vector version.
My goal is to try and create a program that takes in grades in percents and multiply it with their weight value (either in decimal form or percent form). The equation is basically:
Overall grade = (grade1*weightInDecimal1)+(grade2*weightInDecimal2)+(grade3*weightInDecimal3)+...
or
Overall grade = (grade1*weight%1)+(grade2*weight%2)+(grade3*weight%3)+...
Is there a way to store the inputs and then recall it later in the code? Or possibly a more efficient way?
I also want to try and make a dynamic array. I want to make a program that asks the user for how many assignments they have and makes an array based on that. That way it's not stuck at 4 assignments
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main() {
int numbers[4][2];
for(int i=0;i<4;i++)
{
cout<<"Grade #"<<i<<endl;
cin>>numbers[i][0];
cout<<"Weight for grade #"<<i<<":"<<endl;
cin>>numbers[i][1];
}
for (int i = 0; i<4; i++)
{
cout << "|" << numbers[i][0]*numbers[i][1]<< "|";
}
system ("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
This is what structs are for
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <array>
using namespace std;
struct entry {
int grade;
int weight;
int gradeWeight; //grade*weight
};
int main() {
array<entry,4> numbers;
for(int i=0;i<numbers.max_size();i++)
{
cout<<"Grade #"<<i<<endl;
cin>>numbers[i].grade;
cout<<"Weight for grade #"<<i<<":"<<endl;
cin>>numbers[i].weight;
}
for (int i = 0; i<numbers.max_size(); i++)
{
numbers[i].gradeWeight = numbers[i].grade*numbers[i].weight;
cout << "|" << numbers[i].gradeWeight << "|";
}
system ("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
This way you can also increase the amount of numbers by just increasing the array size.
As pointed by others, if you ask the user for how many assignments they have, std::array is a wrong container because it's dimension is fixed at compile time.
As others, I discurage the use of direct memory allocation but the use of std::vector to manage it.
I just suggest the use of reserve() (method of std::vector), when you know how many assignments.
The following is a full example using, instead a couple of std::vector of int, a single std::vector of std::pair<int, int>
#include <utility>
#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
int valG, valW;
std::size_t dim;
std::vector<std::pair<int, int>> vec;
std::cout << "How many grade/weight couples? ";
std::cin >> dim;
vec.reserve(dim);
for ( auto i = 0U ; i < dim ; ++i )
{
std::cout << "Grade #" << i << "? " << std::endl;
std::cin >> valG;
std::cout << "Weight for grade #" << i << "? " << std::endl;
std::cin >> valW;
vec.emplace_back(valG, valW);
}
for ( auto const & p : vec )
std::cout << '|' << (p.first * p.second) << '|';
std::cout << std::endl;
return 0;
}
There are many reasons to avoid using arrays (dynamic or otherwise). See for example Stroustrup's FAQ entry What's wrong with arrays? As Greg suggests in the comments you will most likely write better quality code if you use a container like std::vector.
If you can calculate or input the size of your container before allocating it you can (if you wish) pass that size to the constructor ...
auto syze{ 0 };
auto initialValue{ 0 };
// calculate or input syze
. . .
// dynamically allocate an "array"
// of ints and an "array" of floats
std::vector<int> grades(syze, initialValue);
std::vector<float> weights(syze, initialValue);
On the other hand if you prefer to use a container that dynamically grows to hold data as it arrives you can do that too...
// dynamically allocate an empty "array"
// of ints and an empty "array" of floats
std::vector<int> grades;
std::vector<float> weights;
while (...condition...)
{
std::cin >> g; // input a grade ...
std::cin >> w; // ... and a weight
// grow the containers by adding
// one item at the end of each
grades.emplace_back(g);
weights.emplace_back(w);
}
Update
I should have pointed out how to calculate the result from the two vectors. You can calculate your overall grade with just one more line of code by using std::inner_product from the STL's <numeric> header. Note that in the code below the last argument is 0.0 (rather than just 0) so that std::inner_product returns a double rather than an int. That avoids any risk of float values being truncated to int (and avoids some pretty ugly warnings from the compiler).
auto overallGrade = std::inner_product(grades.begin(), grades.end(), weights.begin(), 0.0);
I have finished writing a program that included reversing, expanding and shifting arrays using the pointer requirement asked by the professor. Everything compiles but the answer from the expand function does not return what I wish: adding 0s after the old user input array which asks for the size of the array and the numbers you wish to put into the array. I think my problem may lie from the fact that I include a pointer on something that might not have a reference in the program. Below is my code:
// *numPtr refers to my old user input array and int tamaño is the size of the array
void expandArray(int *numPtr, int tamaño) {
int *nuevoArray = new int[tamaño *2];
for (int i = 0; i<tamaño; i++) {
nuevoArray[i] = numPtr[i];
}
for (int i = tamaño; i < (tamaño*2); i++) {
nuevoArray[i] = 0;
}
std::cout << nuevoArray << " ";
}
As I said, my theory of the code not compiling the way I wish is because I use the *nuevoArray and it has no reference in my main code, but then again, I am just a beginner with C++. I was thinking of just doing a vector, but I think I would not follow the pointer requirements placed by the professor.
If you want to print the contents of nuevoarray, just use a for loop like this:
for (int i = 0; i < (tamaño*2); i++) {
std::cout << nuevoArray[i] << " ";
}
std::cout << "\n";
Also, since you are using new[] to create the array, you should not forget to delete[] it!
you can print your array by using
for (int i = 0 ; i < tamano * 2 ; ++i) {
std::cout << nuevoArray[i] << " ";
}
std::cout << std::endl;
or in c++11
for (auto i : nuevoArray) {
std::cout << i << " ";
}
std::cout << std::endl;
PS: The std::endl will return to the start of the new line and flush the cout buffer.
Your code does appear to be allocating a larger array and correctly copying data from numPtr into the new array and also correctly filling the remainder of the new array with zeros.
You don't explicitly say what you expect this function to output, but I'm guessing you expect it to print out the contents of the new array, and that you believe there's a problem because instead of that, you're seeing it print something like "0x7fb46be05d10".
You're not correctly printing the array out. Instead you're printing the memory address of the first element out. If you want to see the contents, then you need to loop over the elements of the array and print each one out individually.
Here's a function showing one way of doing that:
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>
void printArray(int *arr, int n) {
std::copy(arr, arr + n, std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));
}
Now you can replace the line std::cout << nuevoArray << " "; in your existing code with printArray(nuevoArray, tamaño*2);
(Also it sounds like whoever is teaching you C++ should take a look at this presentation from the recent C++ conference, CppCon 2015: Stop Teaching C)
How can I access elements from myVector like i would do with arrays ( for(i = 0; i < n; i++) cout << v[i] << " "; )
My code:
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
class Month
{
public:
char *name;
int nr_days;
Month(char* c, int nr) : name(c), nr_days(nr){};
~Month() { /* free(name); */}
};
int main()
{
Month January("January", 31);
Month February("February", 28);
Month March("March", 31);
Month April("April", 30);
Month May("May", 31);
Month June("June", 30);
Month July("July", 31);
Month August("August", 31);
Month September("September", 30);
Month Octomber("Octomber", 31);
Month November("November", 30);
Month December("December", 31);
vector<Month> *myVect = new vector<Month>;
myVect->push_back(January);
myVect->push_back(February);
myVect->push_back(March);
myVect->push_back(April);
myVect->push_back(May);
myVect->push_back(June);
myVect->push_back(July);
myVect->push_back(August);
myVect->push_back(September);
myVect->push_back(Octomber);
myVect->push_back(November);
myVect->push_back(December);
for(vector<Month>::const_iterator i = myVect->begin(); i != myVect->end(); i++)
{
/*
Month myMonth = i;
cout << myMonth.name << " " << myMonth.nr_days << endl;
*/
}
free(myVect);
return 0;
}
I would want to be something like a foreach algorithm: foreach(Month in myVect) cout << ...
And another question: why it gives me a run-time error at the destructor if I uncomment my line?
Ok, there are a lot of problems here.
You declare myVect as a pointer to a vector. This is unnecessary. One of the major benefits of using a vector is so that you don't have to worry about memory management as the vector does it for you. You stack allocate the vector, but internally it heap allocates the memory used to store the items it contains.
You never initialize the pointer. You are invoking undefined behavior as that pointer is not valid. To initialize a pointer you use new. All you have is an invalid stack allocated pointer that does not point to a vector on the heap. EDIT: I just realized that the new was edited out, so you can disregard this one. Still, it shouldn't be a pointer at all.
You are using free to deallocate a C++ class (that you never allocated to begin with...). Don't. This isn't C, you use new and delete to manage memory (when necessary!) in C++. free does not call destructors, it simply frees up a chunk of memory. delete on the other hand does as it knows how to deal with complex C++ types. Never mix new/delete with malloc/free.
myVect->begin() returns a const_iterator, not a T (i.e., in this case, not a Month object). Dereferencing the iterator via the * operator will yield the current iteration object, so:
Month myMonth = *i // <--- IMPORTANT!
As an aside, if you are going to be looping over the vector often you may want to typedef the iterator to reduce verbosity, i.e.,
typedef vector<Month>::const_iterator cmonth_iter;
Now you can write
for(cmonth_iter i = myVect.Begin(); i != myVect.end(); ++i )
{
Month m = *i;
// do stuff with m
}
You can access elements using iterator using the * operator:
for(vector<Month>::const_iterator i = myVect->begin(); i != myVect->end(); i++)
{
Month myMonth = *i;
cout << myMonth.name << " " << myMonth.nr_days << endl;
}
Also, you never allocate a vector in your code. You shouldn't use free() on a pointer you haven't received from malloc() earlier. It is undefined behavior to do otherwise and a run-time error is likely to occur at the point you call free().
Try this:
vector<Month> *myVect = new vector<Month>;
...
delete myVect;
If you remove the unitialized pointer bug by changing:
vector<Month> *myVect;
to:
vector<Month> myVect;
Then this will work. (Once you define ostream << Month)
for(i = 0; i < myVect.size(); i++)
cout << v[i] << " ";
You have a pointer myVect, but never assign a value to it before using (turn compiler warnings on). you should do something like myVect = new vector<Month>(). (or do not make it pointer and change -> into .). The rest of your "foreach" implementation looks fine. And you can use [] to access elements as well.
You free constant strings, you did not allocate them, so you need not to free them either.
You're declaring myVect as a pointer but never allocating it, that's going to give you lots of trouble. Just drop the * and you should be fine.
If you insist, you can use an index just like you would with an array:
for(int i = 0; i < myVect.size(); i++)
{
Month myMonth = myVect[i];
cout << myMonth.name << " " << myMonth.nr_days << endl;
}
Although I'd rather use iterators as you have done - just one simple fix:
Month myMonth = *i;
You can use the arrow operator with iterators...
for(vector<Month>::const_iterator i = myVect->begin(); i != myVect->end(); i++)
{
cout << i->name << " " << i->nr_days << endl;
}
note also that it's more idiomatic with iterators using ++i instead of i++ (the reason is that i++ will need to create a copy of the iterator that will be thrown away).
Note also that your code is UB (undefined behavior) because you are using a pointer to a vector, but you are not allocating it. By the way the use of a pointer in this case is nonsense, the code would be correct and simpler with:
vector<Month> myVect;
myVect.push_back(January);
myVect.push_back(February);
...
for(vector<Month>::const_iterator i = myVect.begin(); i != myVect->end(); ++i)
...
My suggestion is also to avoid to try learning C++ just by experimenting with a compiler (something that I've the impression you're trying to do).
C++ is powerful but also complex and unfortunately quite illogical and asymmetrical in many parts (due to its evolution history). Add to this that when you make a mistake (e.g. not allocating the vector in your original code) you cannot expect the compiler to help you and even at runtime the program may do ANYTHING, including apparently work as you expected (the worst possible thing). This combo is deadly.
Complexity, asymmetry and lack of runtime checks all make C++ impossible to learn by experimentation... just get a good book and read it. It's much simpler this way.