Cycle through pixels with opencv

Question

How would I be able to cycle through an image using opencv as if it were a 2d array to get the rgb values of each pixel? Also, would a mat be preferable over an iplimage for

Answer 1

Since OpenCV 3.0, there are official and fastest way to run function all over the pixel in cv::Mat.

void cv::Mat::forEach (const Functor& operation)

If you use this function, operation is runs on multi core automatically.

Disclosure : I'm contributor of this feature.