Re: Initialization of a const POD member

From:
"Alf P. Steinbach" <alfps@start.no>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:12:48 CST
Message-ID:
<13hsf6em64bteb2@corp.supernews.com>
* Alexander Arhipenko:

Guys, I have a question related to the one submitted by Pierre.
I have following class:
class PermArray
{
   enum { size = 11 };
   size_t array_[size];
public:
   PermArray()
   {}

   size_t* begin() { return array_; }
   size_t* end() { return array_ + size; }
};

array_ should always have values {0,1,2,3...,10} after PermArray
object is constructed (PermArray means here array for permutations). I
don't want to call std::generate algo each time since I know the
initial values of array_ at compile time. I would like to use solution
like:
class PermArray
{
//...
   static const size_t n_array_[size];
};

const size_t PermArray::n_array_[size] = {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10};
PermArray::PermArray() : array_(n_array_)
{}

But this won't compile since compiler "thinks" that I'm trying to
initialize pointer.


<code>
#include <cstddef>
using std::size_t;

template< typename T, size_t N >
struct RawArray
{
    T elem[N];
};

class PermArray
{
private:
    enum { size = 11 };
    RawArray<size_t, size> array_;

    static const RawArray<size_t, size> n_array_;

public:
    PermArray(): array_( n_array_ )
    {}

    size_t* begin() { return array_.elem; }
    size_t* end() { return array_.elem + size; }
};

RawArray<size_t, PermArray::size> const PermArray::n_array_ =
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11};
</code>

Check out the Boost library for a reusable wrapper like RawArray, so
that you don't have to reinvent the wheel again and again.

I'm assuming there is such a wrapper.

Cheers, & hth.,

- Alf

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