Is there a way in C++ to get a sub array from an array?

Question

I\'m having a brain fart at the moment and I am looking for a fast way to take an array and pass half of it to a function. If I had an array A of ten elements, in some langu

Answer 1

Yes. In plain C you use pointers, but in C++ you can use any kind of iterator (a pointer can be considered an iterator).

template
void func(Iter arr, size_t len) { ... }

int main() {
    int arr[10];
    func(arr, 10);    // whole array
    func(arr, 5);     // first five elements
    func(arr + 5, 5); // last five elements

    std::vector vec = ...;
    func(vec.begin(), vec.size());          // All elements
    func(vec.begin(), 5);                   // first five
    func(vec.begin() + 5, vec.size() - 5);  // all but first 5

    return 0;
}

The typical trick is to pass a pointer to the first element of the array, and then use a separate argument to pass the length of the array. Unfortunately there are no bounds checks, so you have to be careful to get it right or you will scribble on your memory.

You can also use half-open ranges. This is the most common way to do it. Many functions in the standard library (like std::sort) work this way.

template
void func(Iter start, Iter end) { ... }

int main() {
    int arr[10];
    func(arr, arr + 10);       // whole array
    func(arr, arr + 5);        // first five elements
    func(arr + 5, arr + 10);   // last five elements

    std::vector vec = ...;
    func(vec.begin(), vec.end());       // whole vector
    func(vec.begin(), vec.begin() + 5); // first five elements
    func(vec.begin() + 5, vec.end());   // all but the first five elements

    return 0;
}

Again, no bounds checks.