Re: Can associative arrays be implemented by operator overloading?

From:
Ramon F Herrera <ramon@conexus.net>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:00:55 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<9f94471e-dc4c-432c-ba3d-1a2dcac91188@41g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>
On Nov 19, 11:40 pm, Ian Collins <ian-n...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Ramon F Herrera wrote:

I am looking for a good excuse to pick up C++. I have been a satisfied
C programmer for years, a language that provides me all the facilities
that I need, with ONE exception.

I keep on finding programming problems that can be nicely solved by
the use of relational arrays. I wish I could count on the simplicity
of expression afforded by Java:

   array.put(key, data);

or -even better- by Perl:

   pictureOf{"ramon"} = myimage.gif; // or something to that effect

My question is two-fold:

(1) Which relational array implementation should I use?


Heterogeneous or homogeneous? For the latter, std::map probably gives
you what you want, for the former, look at boost.


Hadn't thought about it, but my stuff is pretty homogeneous.

(2) Let's say I found a perfect implementation that suits my needs. Is
there a way to overload the bracket operators to make them behave like
in Perl? Please don't tell me that the only interesting/elegant case
of operator overloading is in complex arithmetic!


Given:

std::map<std::string,int> myMap;

myMap["ramon"] = 42.


I am sold! Let the C++ cramming begin...

Thanks++! (*)

-Ramon

(*) don't want to imply that the question is closed, as I am very
interesting on the whole topic.

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