Two square bracket overloading - c++

Question

I am writing a matrix class in c++ and trying to overload some operator like = and >> and << etc.
I was unable to overload operator [][] for matrix class.
if i have an object of class matrix like M1 then i can use this way for giving value to each element:
M1[1][2]=5;
OR
int X;
X=M1[4][5];

Answer 1

Just overload operator[] and make it return a pointer to the respective row or column of the matrix. Since pointers support subscripting by [], access by the 'double-square' notation [][] is possible then.
You can also overload operator() with two arguments.

Answer 2

There is no operator[][] in C++. You have to return a helper object and then overload operator[] for that too, to have this kind of access.

Answer 3

You could overload operator[]. So if you would like to use matrix that way, you should make matrix as array of vectors.
class Matrix
{
...
Vector & operator[]( int index );
...
};
and
class Vector
{
...
double & operator[]( int index );
...
};
Finally:
Matrix m;
...
double value = m[i][j];
...

Answer 4

there is no operator[][], you can implement operator[] to return a reference to the row/column object, in which you can implement the operator[] to return you the cell reference.
You can do something like the following to avoid all that hassle..
struct loc
{
int x;
int y;
};
then in your operator[] overload, accept a loc, something like
T& operator[](loc const& cLoc)
{
// now you have x/y you can return the object there.
}
To call, you can simply do something like:
matrix[loc(2,3)] = 5;

Answer 5

Actually, I did just that in my own matrix class a few years ago. In this case, I defined a matrix template class that contained the snippet, below.
I was then able to iterate and assign as follows:
for(size_t k=1; k<n; ++k) {
minor[p][k-1]=major[j][k];
}
I hope this helps.
// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// list is internal vector representation of n x m matrix
T* list;
// Proxy object used to provide the column operator
template < typename T >
class OperatorBracketHelper
{
Matrix < T > & parent ;
size_t firstIndex ;
public :
OperatorBracketHelper ( Matrix < T > & Parent , size_t FirstIndex ) :
parent ( Parent ), firstIndex ( FirstIndex ) {}
// method called for column operator
T & operator []( size_t SecondIndex )
{
// Call the parent GetElement method which will actually retrieve the element
return parent.GetElement ( firstIndex , SecondIndex );
}
};
// method called for row operator
OperatorBracketHelper < T > operator []( size_t FirstIndex )
{
// Return a proxy object that "knows" to which container it has to ask the element
// and which is the first index (specified in this call)
return OperatorBracketHelper < T >(* this , FirstIndex );
}
T & GetElement ( size_t FirstIndex , size_t SecondIndex )
{
return list[FirstIndex*cols+SecondIndex];
}

Answer 6

I am exactly working on a matrix class and I decided to first create an Array class which has a dynamic 2-D array. So, well just as you, I confronted this obstacle that how I can overload two square brackets. How I approached this case is very simple; I overloaded the square brackets operator twice as member functions. First, I overloaded [] so as to return a pointer pointing to the desired row, so to speak, and then the following member function (i.e. again operator [] overloaded) returns a lvalue of the same type as the array's elements.
However, note that the index you inter to invoke the former overloaded operator [] must be saved somewhere so that you may use it in the latter overloaded operator []. For this reason I simply added a new member of the type int to the class Array (which I've named it "test" in my code below).
class Array {
private:
double **ptr; int test;
... /* the rest of the members includes the number of rows and columns */
public:
Array(int=3,int=3); // Constructor
Array(Array &); // Copy Constructor
~Array(); // Destructor
void get_array();
void show_array();
double* operator[] (int);
double operator[] (short int);
...
};
...
double* Array::operator[] (int a) {
test = a;
double* p = ptr[test];
return p;
}
double Array::operator[] (short int b) {
return ((*this)[test][b]);
}
Therefor, as an example, in main I can simply write:
int main(){
Array example;
cout << example[1][2];
}
I hope this would help you.

Answer 7

You can't overload [][] as such, since there isn't such an
operator. You can overload [] to return something which also
has an [] defined on it (a proxy); in the simplest case,
something like a double* will work, but it's usually better,
although a bit more work, to use a full class. (Place to add
bounds checking, for example.)
Alternatively, you can overload (x,y). Depending on who you
ask, one format or the other is "better". (In fact, it's
strictly a question of style.)

Answer 8

Template matrix class
template <uint8_t rows, uint8_t cols, typename T>
class MatrixMxN {
public:
T* operator[](uint8_t f_row) {
return &m_val[f_row * cols];
}
protected:
T m_val[rows*cols];
};
and here is object of matrix with 3 row, 4 column and integer type.
MatrixMxN<3, 4, int32_t> M;
M[2][3] = 10;
std::cout << M[2][3] << std::endl;