C++ std::vector vs array in the real world

Question

I\'m new to C++. I\'m reading "Beginning C++ Through Game Programming" by Michael Dawson. However, I\'m not new to programming in general. I just finished a cha

Answer 1

Rule of thumb: if you don't know the number of elements in advance, or if the number of elements is expected to be large (say, more than 10), use vector. Otherwise, you could also use an array. For example, I write a lot of geometry-processing code and I define a line as an ARRAY of 2 coordinates. A line is defined by two points, and it will ALWAYS be defined by exactly two points. Using a vector instead of an array would be overkill in many ways, also performance-wise.

Another thing: when I say "array" I really DO MEAN array: a variable declared using an array syntax, such as int evenOddCount[2]; If you consider choosing between a vector and a dynamically-allocated block of memory, such as int *evenOddCount = new int[2];, the answer is clear: USE VECTOR!