C++ Structs in arrays - c++

Question

Am i doing this right, I want a map with a Integer as key, and struct as value. What is the easiest way to, say I want the object at 1. How do I retrieve the value of isIncluded? The last two lines in the code, I tried doing it, but then I realized I don´t really know what is the way to retrieving values of structs in a numbered Map array.
Do I need to call cells.get(1) and assign that to a new temporarely struct to get its values?
/** set ups cells map. with initial state of all cells and their info*/
void setExcludedCells (int dimension)
{
// Sets initial state for cells
cellInfo getCellInfo;
getCellInfo.isIncluded = false;
getCellInfo.north = 0;
getCellInfo.south = 0;
getCellInfo.west = 0;
getCellInfo.east = 0;
for (int i = 1; i <= (pow(dimension, 2)); i++)
{
cells.put(i, getCellInfo);
}
cout << "Cells map initialized. Set [" << + cells.size() << "] cells to excluded: " << endl;
cells.get(getCellInfo.isIncluded);
cells.get(1);
}
the Map, is declared as an private instance variable like this:
struct cellInfo {
bool isIncluded;
int north; // If value is 0, that direction is not applicable (border of grid).
int south;
int west;
int east;
};
Map<int, cellInfo> cells; // Keeps track over included /excluded cells

Answer 1

From the documentation for Map, it appears that .get() returns a ValueType.
You would use it thus:
// Display item #1
std::cout << cells.get(1).isIncluded << "\n";
std::cout << cells.get(1).north << "\n";
Or, since the lookup is relatively expensive, you could copy it to a local variable:
// Display item #1 via initialized local variable
cellInfo ci = cells.get(1);
std::cout << ci.isIncluded << " " << ci.north << "\n";
// Display item #2 via assigned-to local variable
ci = cells.get(2);
std::cout << ci.isIncluded << " " << ci.north << "\n";
My best advice is to use the standard library's std::map data structure instead:
// Expensive way with multiple lookups:
std::cout << cells[1].isIncluded << " " << cells[1].north << "\n";
// Cheap way with one lookup and no copies
const cellinfo& ci(maps[1]);
std::cout << ci.isIncluded << " " << ci.north << "\n";