Converting linear array to a bidimensional array of structs using pointers - c++

EDIT: I will improve this question. I will clarify it right in a little days.
first, I am writing a litlle bmp image analyzer. I have the following problem: The image is stored on plain bytes, without format as an array.
The image is 24 bits, and requires 3 bytes per pixel. I have tried with a solution that I have found on this stackoverflow page, but I can not adapt it for structures.
I have tried but it references invalid areas and bytes. Here's my complete code if you want to see it in TinyPaste (just for a better highlighting): The code in TinyPaste
EDIT 1: This code is in C++, I want to translate it to pure C for portability reasons. This is just the example from I taken the idea of convert a linear array to bidimensional. I have tried to adapt it to pure C for structs but I fail.
This snippet was taken from a stackoverflow question that made me think about this
//The resulting array
unsigned int** array2d;
// Linear memory allocation
unsigned int* temp = new unsigned int[sizeX * sizeY];
// These are the important steps:
// Allocate the pointers inside the array,
// which will be used to index the linear memory
array2d = new unsigned int*[sizeY];
// Let the pointers inside the array point to the correct memory addresses
for (int i = 0; i < sizeY; ++i)
{
array2d[i] = (temp + i * sizeX);
}
// Fill the array with ascending numbers
for (int y = 0; y < sizeY; ++y)
{
for (int x = 0; x < sizeX; ++x)
{
array2d[y][x] = x + y * sizeX;
}
}
I adapt it to reference structs, but it fails. I have tried multiplying by three in this line:
array2d[i] = (temp + i * sizeX /* multiply by 3*/);
But it still without work. I have also done the related castings from char to the struct bmp_pixel(char r, char g, char b).
Can somebody tell me how to adapt it to pure C for structs?? Thanks.

Related

allocating 3 dimensional vectors of size 10000 10000 3 in c++

I'm making a picture editing program, and I'm stuck in allocating memory.
I have no idea what is going on.
Ok.. So when I do this:
std::vector<unsigned char> h;
for (int a = 0; a < 10000 * 10000 * 3; a++) {
h.push_back(0);
}
this is fine(sorry I had to), but when I do this:
std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<unsigned char>>> h;
for (uint32_t a = 0; a < 10000; a++) {
h.push_back({});
for (uint32_t b = 0; b < 10000; b++) {
h.at(a).push_back({});
for (uint32_t c = 0; c < 3; c++) {
h.at(a).at(b).push_back(0xff);
}
}
}
my memory usage explodes, and I get error: Microsoft C++ exception: std::bad_alloc at memory location 0x009CF51C
I'm working with .bmp.
Currently, code is in testing mode so it's basically a giant mess...
I'm 15, so don't expect much of me.
I was searching for solutions, but all I found was like how to handle large integers and so on...
If you can give me maybe another solution, but I want my code to be as beginner friendly as it can get.
This is due to overhead of vector<char>. Each such object with 3 elements takes not 3 bytes, but probably 4 (due to reallocation policy), plus 3 pointers which probably take 3*8=24 bytes. Overall your structure takes 9.3 times the memory it could have.
If you replace the inner vector with an array, it will start working, since array does not have this overhead:
std::vector<std::vector<std::array<unsigned char, 3>>> h;
for (uint32_t a = 0; a < 10000; a++) {
h.emplace_back();
for (uint32_t b = 0; b < 10000; b++) {
h.at(a).emplace_back();
for (auto &c : h.at(a).at(b)) {
c = 0xff;
}
}
}
Another alternative is to put the smaller dimension first.
My guess would be that the memory is being heavily fragmented by the constant vector reallocation, resulting in madness. For data this large, I would suggest simply storing a 1-dimensional pre-allocated vector:
std::vector h(10000 * 10000 * 3);
And then come up with an array accessing scheme that takes the X/Y arguments and turns them into an index in your 1d array, eg.:
int get_index(int x, int y, int width) {
return ((y * width) + x) * 3;
}
If the image size is always fixed, you can also use std::array (see multi-dimensional arrays), since the size is defined at compile-time and it won't suffer the same memory issues as the dynamically allocated vectors.
I don't know if this will help your problem, but you could try allocating the memory for the vec of vecs of vecs all at the beginning, with the constructor.
std::vector<std::vector<std::vector<unsigned char>>> h(10000, std::vector<std::vector<unsigned char>>(10000, std::vector<unsigned char>(3,0xff)));
BTW, you're getting a good start writing C++ at 15! I didn't start studying computer science till I was in my 20s. It really is a very marketable career path, and there are a lot of intellectually stimulating, challenging things to learn. Best of luck!

How to use memset or fill_n to initialize a dynamic two dimensional array in C++

I have a 2D array created dynamically.
int **abc = new int*[rows];
for (uint32_t i = 0; i < rows; i++)
{
abc[i] = new int[cols];
}
I want to fill the array with some value (say 1). I can loop over each item and do it.
But is there a simpler way. I am trying to use memset and std::fill_n as mentioned in this post.
std::fill_n(abc, rows * cols, 1);
memset(abc, 1, rows * cols * sizeof(int));
Using memset crashes my program. Using fill_n gives a compile error.
invalid conversion from 'int' to 'int*' [-fpermissive]
What am I doing wrong here ?
You could just use vector:
std::vector<std::vector<int>> abc(rows, std::vector<int>(cols, 1));
You cannot use std::fill_n or memset on abc directly, it simply will not work. You can only use either on the sub-arrays:
int **abc = new int*[rows];
for (uint32_t i = 0; i < rows; i++)
{
abc[i] = new int[cols];
std::fill_n(abc[i], cols, 1);
}
Or make the whole thing single-dimensional:
int *abc = new int[rows * cols];
std::fill_n(abc, rows*cols, 1);
Or I guess you could use std::generate_n in combination with std::fill_n, but this just seems confusing:
int **abc = new int*[rows];
std::generate_n(abc, rows, [cols]{
int* row = new int[cols];
std::fill_n(row, cols, 1);
return row;
});
I think that your main problem here is that you don't have an array of int values. You have an array of pointers to ints.
You probably should start with int* abc = new int[rows * cols]; and work from there, if I understand what you are trying to achieve here.
Just use with * inside the loop you already have:
for (uint32_t i = 0; i < rows; i++)
{
abc[i] = new int[cols];
std::fill_n(*(abc+i), cols, sizeof(int));
}
fill_n don't know where the memory maps the new int array, so you must be carefully coding that way.
I recommend to read:
A proper way to create a matrix in c++
Since you've already got good, workable answers to solve your problem, I want to add just two pointers left and right from the standard path ;-)
a) is just a link to the documentation of Boost.MultiArray
and b) is something I don't recommend you use, but it might help you to understand what you've initially tried. And since your profile shows visual studio tags, you might come in contact with something like this in the win32 api. If that is the case the documentation usually tells you not to use free()/LocalFree()/... on the elements and the "outer" pointer-pointer but to use a specialized function.
(note: I'm not trying to make this code look pretty or clever; it's a mishmash of c and a little c++-ish junk ;-))
const std::size_t rows = 3, cols =4;
int main()
{
std::size_t x,y;
// allocate memory for 0...rows-1 int* pointers _and_ cols*rows ints
int **abc = (int**)malloc( (rows*sizeof(int*)) + cols*rows*sizeof(int) );
// the memory behind abc is large enough to hold the pointers for abc[0...rows-1]
// + the actual data when accessing abc[0...rows-1][0....cols-1]
int* data = (int*)((abc+rows));
// data now points to the memory right after the int*-pointer array
// i.e. &(abc[0][0]) and data should point to the same location when we're done:
// make abc[0] point to the first row (<-> data+(cols*0)), abc[1] point the second row (<-> data+(cols*1)....
for(y=0;y<rows; y++) {
abc[y] = &(data[y*cols]);
}
// now you can use abc almost like a stack 2d array
for(y=0; y<rows; y++) {
for (x=0; x<cols; x++) {
abc[y][x] = 127;
}
}
// and -since the memory block is continuos- you can also (with care) use memset
memset(&abc[0][0], 1, sizeof(int)*rows*cols);
// and with equal care ....
std::fill_n( &(abc[0][0]), rows*cols, 127);
// and get rid of the whole thing with just one call to free
free(abc);
return 0;
}

Storing a 3D VLA on heap

I need to store an array on heap since I got a seg fault when running the program, due to it being too large. Normally this would be easy, but in this case it is a multidimensional array (3D specifically) and it's a variable length array too.
I tried to fit this answer for a 2D array (which I'm pretty sure works because I found it on another answer on SO) into one for a 3D array
int **ary = new int*[sizeY];
for(int i = 0; i < sizeY; ++i) {
ary[i] = new int[sizeX];
}
by doing this:
double **isoarray = new double*[nBinsX];
for(int xi = 0; xi < nBinsX; ++xi){
isoarray[xi] = new double[nBinsY];
for(int yi = 0; yi < nBinsY; ++yi){
isoarray[xi][yi] = new double[nShuffles];
}
}
Where I should mention that the array is meant to have dimensions nBinsX x nBinsY x nShuffles, but it isn't working, nor did I really think it would to be honest. Can anyone offer a suggestion on how I would do this? Thanks in advance!
Rather than heap-allocating arrays of pointers to more heap-allocated arrays and so on, you should make a single giant allocation and do appropriate indexing. This is a common technique:
double *isoarray = new double[nBinsX * nBinsY * nShuffles];
If you want to make a nice C++ solution out of it, store that pointer in a class which has an indexing method something like this:
double& at(x, y, shuffle) {
return isoarray[x * nBinsY * nShuffles + y * nShuffles + shuffle];
}
This way you have a single contiguous allocation which is better for performance when allocating, when using, and when deallocating. You can play with the indexing in terms of which dimension comes "first" to achieve even better performance depending on which way you usually traverse the data.

Add a matrix of 2x2 into a vector in c++

I am trying to fill a vector with a matrix of values in c++. I'm not very self confident with this procedure (I don't know well about pointers and I don't know if I need it here) however I am trying this
int auxMat[gray.rows][gray.cols];
vector<int> collectionSum;
collectionSum.push_back(auxMat);
When I try to compile I receive an error which says
invalid arguments 'Candidates are: void push_back(const int &)
Can anyone tell me wether it's possible to do, how can I solve it?
I read something about erasing cache memory, changing my eclipse compiler, my c++ version, however I don't think the problem is so big.
You cannot push back a matrix into a vector. What you can do is preallocate memory for your vector (for speeding things up) then use the std::vector<>::assign member function to "copy" from the matrix into the vector:
vector<int> collectionSum(gray.rows * gray.cols); // reserve memory, faster
collectionSum.assign(*auxMat, *auxMat + gray.rows * gray.cols);
This should be pretty fast. Otherwise, you can push back each individual element in a loop.
EDIT
See May I treat a 2D array as a contiguous 1D array? for some technicalities regarding possible undefined behaviour (thanks #juanchopanza for the comment). I believe the code is safe, due to the fact that the storage of the matrix is contiguous.
Because the array auxMat is continuous in memory, you can just copy it directly from memory into your vector. Here, you are telling the vector constructor to copy from the start of auxMat until its end in memory using pointer arithmetic:
std::vector<int> collectionSum(auxMat, auxMat + (gray.rows * gray.cols));
EDIT:
Sorry, I read your question as being a 1D array (int*) rather than a 2D (int**) array. I honestly recommend switching over to a 1D array because often it is faster and easier to work with. Depending on whether your using row-first order or column-first order, you can access the element you want by:
elem = y * width + x; // for row-first order
elem = x * height + y; // for column-first order
For instance:
// Create a 3x3 matrix but represent it continuously as a 1D array
const int A[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9};
const unsigned width = 3;
const unsigned height = 3;
for (int y = 0; y < height; ++y)
{
for (int x = 0; x < width; ++x)
{
printf("%d ", A[y * width + x]);
}
printf("\n");
}

Add 1 to vector<unsigned char> value - Histogram in C++

I guess it's such an easy question (I'm coming from Java), but I can't figure out how it works.
I simply want to increment an vector element by one. The reason for this is, that I want to compute a histogram out of image values. But whatever I try I just can accomplish to assign a value to the vector. But not to increment it by one!
This is my histogram function:
void histogram(unsigned char** image, int height,
int width, vector<unsigned char>& histogramArray) {
for (int i = 0; i < width; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < height; j++) {
// histogramArray[1] = (int)histogramArray[1] + (int)1;
// add histogram position by one if greylevel occured
histogramArray[(int)image[i][j]]++;
}
}
// display output
for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
cout << "Position: " << i << endl;
cout << "Histogram Value: " << (int)histogramArray[i] << endl;
}
}
But whatever I try to add one to the histogramArray position, it leads to just 0 in the output. I'm only allowed to assign concrete values like:
histogramArray[1] = 2;
Is there any simple and easy way? I though iterators are hopefully not necesarry at this point, because I know the exakt index position where I want to increment something.
EDIT:
I'm so sorry, I should have been more precise with my question, thank you for your help so far! The code above is working, but it shows a different mean value out of the histogram (difference of around 90) than it should. Also the histogram values are way different than in a graphic program - even though the image values are exactly the same! Thats why I investigated the function and found out if I set the histogram to zeros and then just try to increase one element, nothing happens! This is the commented code above:
for (int i = 0; i < width; i++) {
for (int j = 0; j < height; j++) {
histogramArray[1]++;
// add histogram position by one if greylevel occured
// histogramArray[(int)image[i][j]]++;
}
}
So the position 1 remains 0, instead of having the value height*width. Because of this, I think the correct calculation histogramArray[image[i][j]]++; is also not working properly.
Do you have any explanation for this? This was my main question, I'm sorry.
Just for completeness, this is my mean function for the histogram:
unsigned char meanHistogram(vector<unsigned char>& histogram) {
int allOccurences = 0;
int allValues = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
allOccurences += histogram[i] * i;
allValues += histogram[i];
}
return (allOccurences / (float) allValues) + 0.5f;
}
And I initialize the image like this:
unsigned char** image= new unsigned char*[width];
for (int i = 0; i < width; i++) {
image[i] = new unsigned char[height];
}
But there shouldn't be any problem with the initialization code, since all other computations work perfectly and I am able to manipulate and safe the original image. But it's true, that I should change width and height - since I had only square images it didn't matter so far.
The Histogram is created like this and then the function is called like that:
vector<unsigned char> histogramArray(256);
histogram(array, adaptedHeight, adaptedWidth, histogramArray);
So do you have any clue why this part histogramArray[1]++; don't increases my histogram? histogramArray[1] remains 0 all the time! histogramArray[1] = 2; is working perfectly. Also histogramArray[(int)image[i][j]]++; seems to calculate something, but as I said, I think it's wrongly calculating.
I appreciate any help very much! The reason why I used a 2D Array is simply because it is asked for. I like the 1D version also much more, because it's way simpler!
You see, the current problem in your code is not incrementing a value versus assigning to it; it's the way you index your image. The way you've written your histogram function and the image access part puts very fine restrictions on how you need to allocate your images for this code to work.
For example, assuming your histogram function is as you've written it above, none of these image allocation strategies will work: (I've used char instead of unsigned char for brevity.)
char image [width * height]; // Obvious; "char[]" != "char **"
char * image = new char [width * height]; // "char*" != "char **"
char image [height][width]; // Most surprisingly, this won't work either.
The reason why the third case won't work is tough to explain simply. Suffice it to say that a 2D array like this will not implicitly decay into a pointer to pointer, and if it did, it would be meaningless. Contrary to what you might read in some books or hear from some people, in C/C++, arrays and pointers are not the same thing!
Anyway, for your histogram function to work correctly, you have to allocate your image like this:
char** image = new char* [height];
for (int i = 0; i < height; ++i)
image[i] = new char [width];
Now you can fill the image, for example:
for (int i = 0; i < height; ++i)
for (int j = 0; j < width; ++j)
image[i][j] = rand() % 256; // Or whatever...
On an image allocated like this, you can call your histogram function and it will work. After you're done with this image, you have to free it like this:
for (int i = 0; i < height; ++i)
delete[] image[i];
delete[] image;
For now, that's enough about allocation. I'll come back to it later.
In addition to the above, it is vital to note the order of iteration over your image. The way you've written it, you iterate over your columns on the outside, and your inner loop walks over the rows. Most (all?) image file formats and many (most?) image processing applications I've seen do it the other way around. The memory allocations I've shown above also assume that the first index is for the row, and the second is for the column. I suggest you do this too, unless you've very good reasons not to.
No matter which layout you choose for your images (the recommended row-major, or your current column-major,) it is in issue that you should always keep in your mind and take notice of.
Now, on to my recommended way of allocating and accessing images and calculating histograms.
I suggest that you allocate and free images like this:
// Allocate:
char * image = new char [height * width];
// Free:
delete[] image;
That's it; no nasty (de)allocation loops, and every image is one contiguous block of memory. When you want to access row i and column j (note which is which) you do it like this:
image[i * width + j] = 42;
char x = image[i * width + j];
And you'd calculate the histogram like this:
void histogram (
unsigned char * image, int height, int width,
// Note that the elements here are pixel-counts, not colors!
vector<unsigned> & histogram
) {
// Make sure histogram has enough room; you can do this outside as well.
if (histogram.size() < 256)
histogram.resize (256, 0);
int pixels = height * width;
for (int i = 0; i < pixels; ++i)
histogram[image[i]]++;
}
I've eliminated the printing code, which should not be there anyway. Note that I've used a single loop to go through the whole image; this is another advantage of allocating a 1D array. Also, for this particular function, it doesn't matter whether your images are row-major or column major, since it doesn't matter in what order we go through the pixels; it only matters that we go through all the pixels and nothing more.
UPDATE: After the question update, I think all of the above discussion is moot and notwithstanding! I believe the problem could be in the declaration of the histogram vector. It should be a vector of unsigned ints, not single bytes. Your problem seems to be that the value of the vector elements seem to stay at zero when your simplify the code and increment just one element, and are off from the values they need to be when you run the actual code. Well, this could be a symptom of numeric wrap-around. If the number of pixels in your image are a a multiple of 256 (e.g. 32x32 or 1024x1024 image) then it is natural that the sum of their number would be 0 mod 256.
I've already alluded to this point in my original answer. If you read my implementation of the histogram function, you see in the signature that I've declared my vector as vector<unsigned> and have put a comment above it that says this victor counts pixels, so its data type should be suitable.
I guess I should have made it bolder and clearer! I hope this solves your problem.