Copy vector of vectors into 1D array

Question

I have following C++ object

std::vector<std::vector<SomeClass>> someClassVectors(sizeOFOuter);

where I know the size of "outer" vector, but sizes of "inner" vectors varies. I need to copy the elements of this structure into 1D array like this:

SomeClass * someClassArray;

I have a solution where I use std::copy like this

int count = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < sizeOfOuter; i++)
{
   std::copy(someClassVectors[i].begin(), someClassVectors[i].end(), &someClassArray[count]);
   count += someClassVectors[i].size();
}

but the class includes large matrices which means I cannot have the "vectors" structure and 1D array allocated twice at the same time.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Embrace Range-v3 (or whatever will be introduced in C++20) and write a solution in (almost) a single line:

auto flattenedRange = ranges::views::join(someClassVectors);

this gives you a range in flattenedRange, which you can loop over or copy somewhere else easily.

This is a possible use case:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

#include <range/v3/view/join.hpp>

int main()
{
    std::vector<std::vector<int>> Ints2D = {
        {1,2,3},
        {4},
        {5,6}
    };

    auto Ints1D = ranges::views::join(Ints2D);
    // here, going from Ints1D to a C-style array is easy, and shown in the other answer already

    for (auto const& Int : Ints1D) {
        std::cout << Int << ' ';
    }
    std::cout << '\n';
    // output is: 1 2 3 4 5 6 
}

In case you want to get a true std::vector instead of a range, before writing it into a C-style array, you can include this other header

#include <range/v3/range/conversion.hpp>

and pipe join's output into a conversion function:

    auto Ints1D = ranges::views::join(Ints2D) | ranges::to_vector;
    // auto deduces std::vector<int>

In terms of standard and versions, it doesn't really require much. In this demo you can see that it compiles and runs just fine with

• compiler GCC 7.3
• library Range-v3 0.9.1
• C++14 standard (option -std=c++14 to g++)

As regards the copies

• ranges::views::join(Ints2D) is only creating a view on Ints2D, so no copy happens; if view doesn't make sense to you, you might want to give a look at Chapter 7 from Functional Programming in C++, which has a very clear explanation of ranges, with pictures and everything;¹
• even assigning that output to a variable, auto Ints1D = ranges::views::join(Ints2D);, does not trigger a copy; Ints1D in this case is not a std::vector<int>, even though it behaves as one when we loop on it (behaves as a vector because it's a view on it);
• converting it to a vector, e.g. via | ranges::to_vector, obviously triggers a copy, because you are no more requesting a view on a vector, but a true one;
• passing the range to an algorithm which loops on its elements doesn't trigger a copy.

Here's an example code that you can try out:

// STL
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
// Boost and Range-v3
#include <boost/range/algorithm/for_each.hpp>
#include <range/v3/view/join.hpp>
#include <range/v3/range/conversion.hpp>

struct A {
    A() = default;
    A(A const&) { std::cout << "copy ctor\n"; };
};

int main()
{
    std::vector<std::vector<A>> Ints2D = {
        {A{},A{}},
        {A{},A{}}
    };
    using boost::range::for_each;
    using ranges::to_vector;
    using ranges::views::join;
    std::cout << "no copy, because you're happy with the range\n";
    auto Ints1Dview = join(Ints2D);
    std::cout << "copy, because you want a true vector\n";
    auto Ints1D = join(Ints2D) | to_vector;
    std::cout << "copy, despite the refernce, because you need a true vector\n";
    auto const& Ints1Dref = join(Ints2D) | to_vector;
    std::cout << "no copy, because we movedd\n";
    auto const& Ints1Dref_ = join(std::move(Ints2D)) | to_vector;
    std::cout << "no copy\n";
    for_each(join(Ints2D), [](auto const&){ std::cout << "hello\n"; });
}

¹ In an attempt to try giving a clue of what a range is, I would say that you can imagine it as a thing wrapping two iterators, one poiting to the end of the range, the other one pointing to the begin of the range, the latter being incrementable via operator++; this opearator will take care of the jumps in the correct way, for instance, after viewing the element 3 in Ints2D (which is in Ints2D[0][2]), operator++ will make the iterator jump to view the elment Ints[1][0].

Answer 2

Do you previously preallocate someClassArray to a given size? I'd suggest using 1D vector for getting rid of known problems with the plain array if possible.

what about something like this:

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <algorithm>
#include <iterator>

int main() {

     std::vector<std::vector<int>>  someClassVectors {
        {1,2,3},
        {4,5,6},
        {7,8,9}
     };

    std::vector<int> flat;  
    while (!someClassVectors.empty())
    {
       auto& last = someClassVectors.back();
    
       std::move(std::rbegin(last), std::rend(last), std::back_inserter(flat));
    
       someClassVectors.pop_back();
    }
    
    std::reverse(std::begin(flat), std::end(flat));
    
    int * someClassArray = flat.data();

    std::copy(someClassArray, someClassArray + flat.size(), std::ostream_iterator<int>(std::cout, " "));

}

The extra reverse operation doesn't have an effect on memory metrics - such an approach helps to avoid unneeded memory reallocations resulting from removing vector elements from beginning to end.

EDIT Inspired by comments I changed copy to move semantics