Re: Ideal way to return a member array
On 22 mar, 17:23, Jeff Schwab <j...@schwabcenter.com> wrote:
James Kanze wrote:
On 22 mar, 06:56, Jeff Schwab <j...@schwabcenter.com> wrote:
[...]
where raw arrays would be appropriate (like for a 3D vector
returning coordinates to be rendered)
The reason to use raw arrays in such a case is to enable rapid
I/O by allowing very low-level data access.
Except, of course, that that doesn't work. Normally, in such
cases, you encapsulate still more, with a specific type for the
information, and various << and >> operators for output and
input (e.g. to whatever data stream types you want to support).
How do you implement << and >>? At some point, don't you have to deal
with buffers full of bytes?
At some point, yes. You have to format the data into a char[],
since that's all the lower levels (e.g. streambuf or the O/S
level) actually understand. If you're using streambuf, at
least, you'll generally push the bytes out one by one, however,
and if you're not, you'll design a class with a more or less
similar interface.
--
James Kanze (GABI Software) email:james.kanze@gmail.com
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