Re: Length of array

From:
"Axter" <google@axter.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
26 Jun 2006 04:36:56 -0700
Message-ID:
<1151321816.150164.200280@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>
vikram_p_na...@yahoo.com wrote:

anali...@yandex.ru wrote:

There is _msize() function in Visual C compilers. It can be used with
following way:

template<class T> int ArrayLength(T* p)
{
    return (_msize(p)/sizeof(T));
}

void main()
{
    int *a=new int[10];
    printf("array size: %d\n",ArrayLength(a));
    delete[]a;
}


Not sure this is what the OP is looking for. What happens if a is not
dynamically allotted?
AFAIK, there is no way to find the size of the array.


If the size is not dynamically allocated, there's a portable way to
find the size if you have a reference to the array.
See example GetArrayLength below.
If it's dynamically allocated, you would have to use non-standard
methods, like using _msize.

Example code:
#include <iostream>
#include <malloc.h>
using namespace std ;

template<typename T>
class ConcreteArrayLength
{
private:
    template <typename TT> struct deref_t {typedef TT type_t;};
    template <typename TT> struct deref_t<TT*> {typedef typename
deref_t<TT>::type_t type_t;};
public:
    typedef typename deref_t<T>::type_t ref_t;
    typedef T type_t;
    size_t operator()(ref_t &t)
    {
        return sizeof(t)/sizeof(t[0]);
    }
private:
    size_t operator()(ref_t *t);
};

template<class T>
size_t GetArrayLength(T& t) //Portable method
{
    return ConcreteArrayLength<T>()(t);
}

template<class T> size_t GetArrayPtrLength(T& p)
{
    return (_msize(p)/sizeof(T)); //Not portable method
}

int main()
{
    int *dyn_alloc = new int[8];
    cout << "dyn_alloc size: " << GetArrayPtrLength(dyn_alloc) << endl;
    //cout << "dyn_alloc size: " << GetArrayLength(dyn_alloc) << endl;
//This will give compile time warning

    int concrete_obj [] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 } ;
    cout << "concrete_obj size: " << GetArrayLength(concrete_obj) << endl;
    //cout << "concrete_obj size: " << GetArrayPtrLength(concrete_obj) <<
endl; //Will give runtime error

    delete[] dyn_alloc;
    system("pause");
    return 0 ;
}

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