C++ Multi-dimensional Arrays on the Heap

Question

How would I go about dynamically allocating a multi-dimensional array?

Answer 1

See this: C++ FAQ by Marshall Cline

See "How do I allocate multidimensional arrays using new?" and "But the previous FAQ’s code is SOOOO tricky and error prone! Isn’t there a simpler way?" sections.

Answer 2

This a reproduction of a post on another thread. It does exactly what you want, without needing to know the array dimensions ahead of time, and without using boost or STL.

Heres a routine which allocates the 3D array of dimension N1 x N2 x N3 in contiguous memory space while allowing you the a[i][j][k] syntax for operator access. The array is dynamic but continuous so it's a huge plus over the vector<> approach and loops of new[] calls.

template <class T> T ***Create3D(int N1, int N2, int N3)
{
    T *** array = new T ** [N1];

    array[0] = new T * [N1*N2];

    array[0][0] = new T [N1*N2*N3];

    int i,j,k;

    for( i = 0; i < N1; i++) {

        if (i < N1 -1 ) {

            array[0][(i+1)*N2] = &(array[0][0][(i+1)*N3*N2]);

            array[i+1] = &(array[0][(i+1)*N2]);

        }

        for( j = 0; j < N2; j++) {     
            if (j > 0) array[i][j] = array[i][j-1] + N3;
        }

    }

    cout << endl;
    return array;
};

template <class T> void Delete3D(T ***array) {
    delete[] array[0][0]; 
    delete[] array[0];
    delete[] array;
};

And later in your implementation routine...

int *** array3d;
int N1=4, N2=3, N3=2;

int elementNumber = 0;

array3d = Create3D<int>(N1,N2,N3);

//equivalently, a 'flat' array could be obtained with
//int * array = array3d[0][0];

cout << "{" << endl;
for (i=0; i<N1; i++) {
    cout << "{";
    for (j=0; j<N2; j++) {
        cout << "{";
        for (k=0; k<N3; k++) {
            array3d[i][j][k] = elementNumber++;
            cout << setw(4) << array3d[i][j][k] << " ";

            //or if you're using the flat array:
            //array[i*N2*N3 + j*N3 + k] = elementNumber++;

        }
        cout << "}";
    }
    cout << "}";
    cout << endl ;
}
cout << "}" << endl;

Delete3D(array3d);

Gives the output:

{
{{   0    1 }{   2    3 }{   4    5 }}
{{   6    7 }{   8    9 }{  10   11 }}
{{  12   13 }{  14   15 }{  16   17 }}
{{  18   19 }{  20   21 }{  22   23 }}
}

Answer 3

As another alternative, STLSoft includes a fixed_array_2d class (as well as 3D and 4D versions). Compared with the homebrewed solutions given here, it has a similar implementation but a more complete feature set (full support for iterators, etc.). Compared with boost::multi_array, it's lighter weight and easier on not-quite-compliant C++ compilers but (intentionally) lacks some of multi_array's features.

Answer 4

How about using Boost.Multiarray ? I believe it answers your need quite well ! http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_37_0/libs/multi_array/doc/user.html#sec_introduction

Here is an excerpt from the documentation page :

 #include < boost/multi_array.hpp >

 #include < cassert >

int main () 

{

  // Create a 3D array that is 3 x 4 x 2

  typedef boost::multi_array< double, 3 > array_type;

  typedef array_type::index index;

  array_type A(boost::extents[3][4][2]);


  // Assign values to the elements

  int values = 0;

  for(index i = 0; i != 3; ++i) 

    for(index j = 0; j != 4; ++j)

      for(index k = 0; k != 2; ++k)

        A[i][j][k] = values++;

  // Verify values

  int verify = 0;

  for(index i = 0; i != 3; ++i) 

    for(index j = 0; j != 4; ++j)

      for(index k = 0; k != 2; ++k)

        assert(A[i][j][k] == verify++);

  return 0;

}

Answer 5

Here's the implementation I've got; I declare a single contiguous block of ints instead of creating new blocks inside my for loop, so I'm not causing page faults all over the place. Thanks to eJames for pointing out why this code was broken originally.

int width = 10, height = 10, totalSize = width*height;
int **myArray = new int*[width];
int *data = new int[totalSize];

for ( int i = 0; i < height; ++i )
{
    myArray[i] = data + (i*width);
}

// do some things here

delete[] data;
delete[] myArray;

Answer 6

I'm surprised no one has mentioned boost::multi_array yet. I needed a 2D array in a program just last week, and found it to be a lot easier, and quicker to code, than the home-brewed solutions that I've come up with before (all of which are mentioned in other comments).

Answer 7

You can index a one dimensional as a 2, 3, or N dimensional one if you just space over the correct amount of elements. For example, if I've got 10 rows and 10 columns, I know that if I'm on row 3 I will have to go over at least 30 elements to get to it.

Somehow I prefer this notation for simple 2D arrays since I don't need to worry about nested levels of pointers. The downside is the messier index notation. Here's an example with a 2D array with n rows and m columns:

int *matrix = new int[n*m];

//set element (3,7) to 10
matrix[3*m+7] = 10;

//print the matrix
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
  for (int j = 0; j < m; j++) {
    cout << matrix[i*m+j] << ' ';
  }
  cout << '\n';
}

Answer 8

For the sake of completeness, here is a better way to do it in C++ when you know the array bounds ahead of time. The benefit of using the following class is that you don't have to care about calling delete[] on your data. This means that this class will be exception-safe, and all of the other great stuff about RAII.

template<typename T, int width, int height>
class MultiArray
{
    private:
        typedef T cols[height];
        cols * data;
    public:
        T& operator() (int x, int y) { return data[x][y]; }
        MultiArray() { data = new cols[width]; }
        ~MultiArray() { delete [] data; }
};

Usage:

MultiArray<int, 10, 10> myArray;
myArray(2, 3) = 4;
cout << myArray(2, 3);

edit: and, while I'm at it, here is the setup you can use if you don't know the array bounds until runtime:

template<typename T>
class Array2D
{
    private:
        const int width;
        T * data;
    public:
        T& operator() (int x, int y) { return data[y*width + x]; }
        Array2D(const int w, const int h) : width(w) { data = new T[w*h]; }
        ~Array2D() { delete [] data; }
};

Usage:

Array2D myArray(10, 10);
myArray(3, 4) = 42;
cout << myArray(3, 4);

Answer 9

Your loop would not write the pointer values into myArray properly. I would suggest the following instead:

int width = 10;
int height = 10;
int ** myArray = new int*[width];
int * data = new int[width*height];
int * index = data;
for (int i = 0; i < width; i++)
{
    myArray[i] = index;
    index += height;
}

// ...

delete[] data;
delete[] myArray;

Answer 10

std::vector<std::vector<int> >should be mentioned, as it's often the simplest way. However, be aware that it is non-rectangular. Not every std::vector<int> needs to have the same length.

Answer 11

If you know the size of nested dimensions already, you can also literally allocate a multi dimensional array using new:

typedef int dimensions[3][4];

dimensions * dim = new dimensions[10];
dim[/* from 0 to 9 */][/* from 0 to 2 */][/* from 0 to 3 */] = 42;
delete [] dim;

instead of 10, a runtime determined value can be passed. Since it's not part of the type operator new returns, that's allowed. This is nice if you know the number of columns, but want to keep the number of rows variable, for example. The typedef makes it easier to read the code.